Vladimir Arnold

Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (or Arnol'd; Russian: Влади́мир И́горевич Арно́льд, IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ˈiɡərʲɪvʲɪtɕ ɐrˈnolʲt]; 12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. He is best known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem regarding the stability of integrable systems, and contributed to several areas, including geometrical theory of dynamical systems, algebra, catastrophe theory, topology, real algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, differential equations, classical mechanics, differential-geometric approach to hydrodynamics, geometric analysis and singularity theory, including posing the ADE classification problem. In his later years he shifted his research interests, investigating discrete mathematics.

His first main result was the solution of Hilbert's thirteenth problem in 1957 when he was 19. He co-founded three new branches of mathematics: topological Galois theory (with his student Askold Khovanskii), KAM theory (with Andrey Kolmogorov and Jürgen Moser) and symplectic topology.

Arnold was also a populariser of mathematics. Through his lectures, seminars, and as the author of several textbooks (such as Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics and Ordinary Differential Equations) and popular mathematics books, he influenced many mathematicians and physicists. Many of his books were translated into English. His views on education were opposed to those of Bourbaki.

A controversial and often quoted dictum of his is "Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap". The Arnold principle: "Discoveries are rarely attributed to the correct person" is also named after him.

Arnold worked at the Moscow State University from 1961 to 1986, at the Steklov Mathematical Institute since 1986, and at the Paris Dauphine University since 1993. He was one of the founders of the Independent University of Moscow.

Arnold received many major prizes, including the inaugural Crafoord Prize in 1982 (with Louis Nirenberg), the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 2001 and the Shaw Prize in 2008 (with Ludwig Faddeev).