Vladimir Petrovich Platonov ( be, Уладзімір Пятровіч Платонаў, Uladzimir Piatrovic Platonau; russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Плато́нов, Vladimir Platonov) (born December 1, 1939, Stayki village,

Vitebsk Region Vitebsk Region or Vitebsk Oblast or Viciebsk Voblasts ( be, Ві́цебская во́бласць, ''Viciebskaja voblasć'', ; rus, Ви́тебская о́бласть, Vitebskaya oblast, ˈvʲitʲɪpskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a region ( oblas ...

, Belarusian SSR) is a Soviet,

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian and Russian

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 ...

. He is an expert in algebraic geometry and

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

and member of the

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

.Платонов Владимир Петрович
profile as the

website, President of the Belarus Academy of Science (1987–1992). From 1992–2004 he worked at research centers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Education

In 1961 Platonov graduated with highest distinction from

Belarus State University Belarusian State University (BSU) ( be, links=no, Белару́скі дзяржа́ўны ўніверсітэ́т, ; russian: links=no, Белору́сский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a university in Mins ...

. In 1963 he received his Ph.D. from the Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In 1967, Platonov received his Doctor of Science degree from the Academy of Sciences of USSR.

Career

At age 28 Platonov received a title of full professor at Belarus State. This made him the youngest full professor in the nation's history. In 1972 he became an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and its President (1987–1993). He has been an Academician of the Russian/USSR Academy of Sciences since 1987. He was the Director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus from 1977 to 1992.

Research

His interests are

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

, algebraic geometry and

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mat ...

. He solved the Strong approximation problem, developed the reduced

K-theory In mathematics, K-theory is, roughly speaking, the study of a ring generated by vector bundles over a topological space or scheme. In algebraic topology, it is a cohomology theory known as topological K-theory. In algebra and algebraic geometr ...

and solved the Tannaka–Artin problem. He solved the Kneser–Tits and Grothendieck problems. Together with F. Grunewald he solved the arithmeticity problem for finite extensions of arithmetic groups and the rigidity problem for arithmetic subgroups of algebraic groups with radical. Platonov solved the rationality problem for

spinor In geometry and physics, spinors are elements of a complex vector space that can be associated with Euclidean space. Like geometric vectors and more general tensors, spinors transform linearly when the Euclidean space is subjected to a sligh ...

varieties and the Dieudonne problem on spinor norms. Platonov was an invited speaker of the International Congresses of Mathematicians in Vancouver (1974), Helsinki (1978) and the European Congress of Mathematicians in Budapest (1996). He is a member of the Canadian Mathematical Society and from 1993 to 2001 was a Professor of the

Faculty of Mathematics In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although rese ...

of the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

. He is the author, with Andrei Rapinchuk, of ''Algebraic Groups and Number Theory''. He currently works as a Chief Science Officer of

Scientific Research Institute of System Development Scientific Research Institute of System Analysis ( abbrev. SRISA/NIISI RAS, russian: НИИСИ РАН, russian: Научно-исследовательский институт системных исследований Российской Ак� ...

(NIISI RAN).

Assault conviction

On November 9, 1999, Platonov appeared in court on a bail hearing on a charge of attempted murder for an attack on his wife. He was convicted of assault. The court gave him a conditional sentence of two years. In September 2001, Platonov took early retirement as a professor of the University of Waterloo.

Awards

*1968:

Lenin Komsomol Prize Lenin Komsomol Prize () was a Soviet annual award for the best works in science, engineering, literature or art carried out by young authors of age not exceeding 33 years. Komsomol was the abbreviated name of The Communist Union of Youth (Russia ...

, for a series of works in

topological group In mathematics, topological groups are logically the combination of groups and topological spaces, i.e. they are groups and topological spaces at the same time, such that the continuity condition for the group operations connects these two st ...

theory *1978: Lenin Prize in Science and Technology, for a fundamental series of works "Arithmetics of Algebraic Groups and Reduced

K-Theory In mathematics, K-theory is, roughly speaking, the study of a ring generated by vector bundles over a topological space or scheme. In algebraic topology, it is a cohomology theory known as topological K-theory. In algebra and algebraic geometr ...

" ("Арифметика алгебраических групп и приведенная К-теория") *1993:

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

References