Ivan Zhegalkin

Zhegalkin, Ivan Ivanovich

 

Born July 22 (Aug. 3), 1869, in Mtsensk, now in Orlov Oblast; died Mar. 28, 1947, in Moscow. Soviet mathematician. Honored scientist of the RSFSR (1945).

In 1893, Zhegalkin graduated from Moscow University, where he became a privatdocent in 1902. In 1911 he left the university to protest against the reactionary policies of the minister of education, L. A. Kasso. He returned to the university in 1917 and worked there until his death. His master’s dissertation Transfinite Numbers (1907) was the first Russian monograph on the theory of sets. In the field of mathematical logic Zhegalkin is credited with the construction (1927) of the algebra of logic as an arithmetic of residues modulo-2 and a series of works dealing with certain important cases permitting an algorithmic solution of the so-called decision problem. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a medal.

REFERENCE

Iushkevich, A. P.Istoriia matematiki v Rossii do 1917 goda. Moscow, 1968.