Olga Arsenievna Oleinik (Russian: Ольга Арсеньевна Олейник) (July 2, 1925 in Matusiv, Ukraine – October 13, 2001, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet mathematician who conducted pioneering work on the theory of partial differential equations, the theory of strongly inhomogeneous elastic media, and the mathematical theory of boundary layers. She was a student of Ivan Petrovsky. She studied and worked at the Moscow State University.

She received many prizes for her remarkable contributions: the Chebotarev Prize in 1952; the Lomonosov Prize in 1964; the State Prize 1988; the Petrowsky Prize in 1995; and the Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995. Also she was member of several foreign academies of sciences, and earned several honorary degrees.

Work

Research activity

She authored more than 370 mathematical publications and 8 monographs, as a single or in collaboration with others: her work belongs to algebraic geometry, to the theory of partial differential equations where her work enlighted varius aspects, elasticity theory and boundary layers theory.

Teaching activity

She was an enthusiast and very active teacher, advising the thesis of 57 "candidates".

See also

* Boundary layer
* Bounded variation
* Elasticity theory
* Homogenization
* Partial differential equations
* Weak solutions

Bibliography

* Colautti Fichera, Matelda (December 2006), ... ed è subito sera... La lunga, brevissima vita di Gaetano Fichera (The long, extremely short life of Gaetano Fichera), Roma: Self-published, pp. 217 (in Italian). The story of the life of Gaetano Fichera written by his wife, Matelda Colautti Fichera: this reference is important for understanding the friendship between Olga Oleinik, Gaetano Fichera and his wife.
* Friedlander, Susan; Keyfitz, Barbara (2006), "Olga Ladyzhenskaya and Olga Oleinik: Two Great Women Mathematicians of the 20th Century", in Kuperberg, Krystyna, Women in Mathematics: The Legacy of Ladyzhenskaya and Oleinik - May 18 - 20, 2006, Berkeley, CA: AWM and MSRI, http://topo.math.auburn.edu/pub/2Olgas-proceedings/pa003-morawetz.pdf, retrieved 1 July 2009 . Some recollections of the authors about Olga Ladyzhenskaya and Olga Oleinik.
* Jäger, Willi; Lax, Peter; Synge Morawetz, Cathleen (2003), "Olga Arsen'evna Oleĭnik (1925-2001)", Notices of the American Mathematical Society 50 (2): 220–223, Zbl 1159.01335, http://www.ams.org/notices/200302/comm-oleinik.pdf . An ample commemorative paper written by three friends/collaborators.
* Nirenberg, Louis (2004), "About Olga Arsen'evna Oleinik", Journal of Mathematical Sciences 120 (3 / March): 1241, doi:10.1023/B:JOTH.0000016045.00993.ef, Zbl pre02193468, http://www.springerlink.com/content/tn8m14k671073058/?p=6237f7045efd41829f92d276a3e44661&pi=3 . A short obituary notice by Louis Nirenberg.
* Synge Morawetz, Cathleen (2006), "Early Memories of Olga Ladyzhenskaya and Olga Oleinik", in Kuperberg, Krystyna, Women in Mathematics: The Legacy of Ladyzhenskaya and Oleinik - May 18 - 20, 2006, Berkeley, CA: AWM and MSRI, http://topo.math.auburn.edu/pub/2Olgas-proceedings/pa003-morawetz.pdf, retrieved 1 July 2009 . Some recollections of the author about Olga Ladyzhenskaya and Olga Oleinik.
* Venttsel', T.D.; Vladimirov, V.S.; Zhikov, V.V.; Il'in, A.M.; Il'in, V.P.; Kondrat'ev, V.A.; Kudryavtsev, L.D.; Mishchenko, E.F. et al. (2003), "Ol'ga Arsen'evna Oleinik (obituary)", UMN' 58 (1(349)): 165–174, MR1992133, Zbl 1050.01527, http://mi.mathnet.ru/eng/umn/v58/i1/p165 . An almost comprehensive obituary article: its English translation is published in the Russian Mathematical Surveys, 2003, 58:1, 161–17 (doi:10.1070/RM2003v058n01ABEH000607).

References

* Kozlov, S.M.; Oleinik, O.A.; Zhikov, V.V. (1994), Homogenization of differential operators and integral functionals, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag, Zbl 0838.35001, ISBN 3-540-54809-2
* Oleinik, Olga A. (1957), "Discontinuous solutions of non-linear differential equations", 'UMN' 12 (3(75)): 3–73, Zbl 0080.07701, http://mi.mathnet.ru/eng/umn/v12/i3/p3 (in Russian). An important paper where the author describes generalized solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations as BV functions.
* Oleinik, Olga A. (1959), "Construction of a generalized solution of the Cauchy problem for a quasi-linear equation of first order by the introduction of "vanishing viscosity"", 'UMN' 14 (2(86)): 159–164, Zbl 0096.06603, http://mi.mathnet.ru/eng/umn/v14/i2/p159 (in Russian). An important paper where the author consturcts a weak solution in BV for a nonlinear partial differential equation with the method of vanishing viscosity.
* Oleinink, O.A. (1960), "A method of solution of the general Stefan problem", Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 135: 1050–1057, Zbl 0131.09202 (in Russian). An important paper in the theory of the Stefan problem: for the first time and independently of S.L. Kamenomostskaya the author proves the existence of a generalized solution for the multi dimensional model.
* Oleinik, Olga A.; Radkevich, Evgenii V. (1973), Second order equations with nonnegative characteristic form, New York and London / Providence, R.I.: Plenum Press / AMS, MR457907, Zbl 0217.41502 (reviews of the Russian edition), ISBN 0-306-30751-0
* Oleinik, O.A.; Shamaev, A.S.; Yosifian, G.A. (1991), Mathematical problems in elasticity and homogenization, Studies in Mathematics and its Applications, 26, Amsterdam - London - New York - Tokyo: North-Holland, Zbl 0768.73003, ISBN 0-444-88441-6
* Oleinik, O.A.; Samokhin, V.N. (1999), Mathematical models in boundary layer theory, Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Computation, 15, London-Weinheim-New York-Tokyo-Melbourne-Madras: Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, Zbl 0928.76002, ISBN 1-5848-8015-5, http://books.google.com/?id=8-CxE8VuDc4C&pg=PP1&dq=Mathematical+Models+in+boundary+layer+theory .

External links

* Olga Arsenievna Oleinik at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
* "Olga Arsen'enva Oleinik" biography, in Biographies of Women Mathematicians, Agnes Scott College.
* O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Olga Arsenievna Oleinik", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Oleinik.html ..
* Olga Oleinik at PlanetMath.