Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko (russian: Бори́с Влади́мирович Гнеде́нко; January 1, 1912 – December 27, 1995) was a Soviet Ukrainian mathematician and a student of

Andrey Kolmogorov Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov ( rus, Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kəlmɐˈɡorəf, a=Ru-Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.ogg, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Sovi ...

. He was born in Simbirsk (now

Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, and died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He is perhaps best known for his work with Kolmogorov, and his contributions to the study of

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...

, particularly

extreme value theory Extreme value theory or extreme value analysis (EVA) is a branch of statistics dealing with the extreme deviations from the median of probability distributions. It seeks to assess, from a given ordered sample of a given random variable, the pr ...

, with such results as the

Fisher–Tippett–Gnedenko theorem In statistics, the Fisher–Tippett–Gnedenko theorem (also the Fisher–Tippett theorem or the extreme value theorem) is a general result in extreme value theory regarding asymptotic distribution of extreme order statistics. The maximum of a sam ...

. Gnedenko was appointed as Head of the Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry Section of the

Ukrainian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...

in 1949, and became Director of the

NASU Institute of Mathematics Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine ( uk, Інститут математики Національної академії наук України) is a government-owned research institute in Ukraine that carries ...

in 1955. Gnedenko was a leading member of the Russian school of probability theory and statistics. He also worked on applications of statistics to reliability and quality control in manufacturing. He wrote a history of mathematics in Russia (published 1946) and with O. B. Sheynin the section on the history of probability theory in the history of mathematics by Kolmogorov and

Adolph P. Yushkevich Adolph-Andrei Pavlovich Yushkevich (russian: Адо́льф-Андре́й Па́влович Юшке́вич; 15 July 1906 – 17 July 1993) was a Soviet historian of mathematics, leading expert in medieval mathematics of the East and the work ...

(published 1992). In 1958 he was a plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh with a talk entitled "Limit theorems of probability theory".

Books

* * with A. N. Kolmogorov: * with A. Ya. Khinchin: * * with Yu. K. Belyayev and A. D. Solovyev: * with I. N. Kovalenko:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gnedenko, Boris Vladimirovich 1912 births 1995 deaths People from Ulyanovsk People from Simbirsky Uyezd Members of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine NASU Institute of Mathematics Soviet mathematicians Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the USSR State Prize Historians of mathematics Probability theorists Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery