Aleksandr Leonidovich Khazanov (May 4, 1979 – disappeared June 10, 2001) is a

Russian American Russian Americans ( rus, русские американцы, r=russkiye amerikantsy, p= ˈruskʲɪje ɐmʲɪrʲɪˈkant͡sɨ) are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United Stat ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. A child prodigy, he wrote a perfect paper at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...

1994, one of the youngest ever to do so. Khazanov was reported missing in June 2001. He suffered from depression or bipolar disorder at the time of his disappearance.

Biography

Born to Anna and Leonid Khazanov, a math professor, Aleksandr had attended a special school for math students several years older in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

(now

Saint Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

), before his family fled antisemitic threats and moved to

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, United States as refugees in 1992. He attended Stuyvesant High School and showed his exceptional talent in mathematics. In the summer of 1994, he passed qualifying exams for Penn State University's doctoral program in math, and he was the youngest member on the United States team for the

of which all six members got perfect scores. In the following year, he was named a finalist and eventually placed 7th at the 54th

Westinghouse Science Talent Search Westinghouse may refer to: Businesses Current companies *Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the company that manages the Westinghouse brand, with licensees: **Westinghouse Electric Company, providing nuclear power-related services ** Westingho ...

for a paper dealing with a variant of

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than 2. The cases and have been ...

, mentored by Leonid Vaserstein, a math professor at Penn State University also from Russia. He represented the United States for the second time in the 1995 International Mathematical Olympiad, and he entered the PhD math program at Penn State University right after high school in fall 1995.

Disappearance

In the morning of June 10, 2001, he left home with his mountain bike and went missing, leaving a note in Russian saying "I went to a library." He was taking a semester leave due to personal problems, and had been taking drugs for depression, but he did not bring them when he left home.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khazanov, Aleksandr 1979 births 2001 deaths 2000s missing person cases American people of Russian-Jewish descent International Mathematical Olympiad participants Mathematicians from New York (state) Missing person cases in New York City People from Brooklyn Russian emigrants to the United States Stuyvesant High School alumni People from Saint Petersburg

Biography

Disappearance

See also

References

External links