Alexander Yakovlevich Lerner (russian: Александр Яковлевич Лернер; 7 September 1913,

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; uk, Вінниця, ; yi, װיניצע) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. ...

, Russian Empire – 6 April 2004, Rehovot, Israel) was a scientist and Soviet

refusenik Refusenik (russian: отказник, otkaznik, ; alternatively spelt refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authori ...

. He was born to a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish family in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). Lerner graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the

Moscow Power Engineering Institute National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute" (MPEI) is a public university based in Moscow, Russia. It offers training in the fields of Power Engineering, Electric Engineering, Radio Engineering, Electronics, Information Tec ...

in 1938, and received a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Lerner served as the chief engineer of the Central Autonomous Laboratory at the Soviet Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy 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 millio ...

. Lerner became a member of the Soviet scientific and technological elite. He was a leading practitioner of cybernetics. It is a branch of science that deals with human control systems like the brain and nervous systems where they interconnect with complex electronic systems. His mathematical equations were used in forecasting supply and demand for vital materials like steel, or allocating scarce resources. He was the first prominent Soviet scientist to seek to emigrate to Israel. His request was denied, and resulted in the sudden loss of his positions and privileges. In 1977, a letter was published in the Soviet newspaper ''

Izvestiya ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...

'' calling Lerner "the leader of an espionage nest." His closest associates in the refusenik movement —

Natan Sharansky Natan Sharansky ( he, נתן שרנסקי; russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; uk, Натан Щаранський, born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky on 20 January 1948); uk, Анатолій Борисович Щаранський, ...

, Vladimir Slepak and

Ida Nudel Ida Yakovlevna Nudel ( he, אידה נודל; russian: Ида Яковлевна Нудель) (27 April 1931 – 14 September 2021) was a Soviet-born Israeli refusenik and activist. She was known as the "Guardian Angel" for her efforts to help ...

— were arrested. He was finally granted an exit permit and emigrated to Israel on 27 January 1988, together with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Lerner accepted an appointment in the mathematics department at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

where he pursued a number of projects, including the development of an

artificial heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

and the construction of a mathematical model to predict the behavior of developed societies. He died in 2004 in Rehovot at the age of 90.

Famous followers

Professor Vladimir Burkov, the head of Laboratory of Active Systems in V.A. Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences of RAS, Moscow, Russia. Professor

Vladimir Vapnik Vladimir Naumovich Vapnik (russian: Владимир Наумович Вапник; born 6 December 1936) is one of the main developers of the Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory of statistical learning, and the co-inventor of the support-vector machin ...

, pioneer in statistical learning theory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Alexander 1913 births 2004 deaths Cyberneticists People from Vinnytsia Ukrainian Jews Soviet dissidents Soviet people accused of spying for the West Refuseniks Soviet electrical engineers Ukrainian electrical engineers