Efim Isaakovich Zelmanov (Russian: Ефи́м Исаа́кович Зе́льманов; born 7 September 1955) is a Russian-American[1] mathematician, known for his work on combinatorial problems in nonassociative algebra and group theory, including his solution of the restricted Burnside problem. He was awarded a Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zürich in 1994.

Efim Zelmanov
Efim Zelmanov
Born
Efim Isaakovich Zelmanov

(1955-09-07) September 7, 1955 (age 69)
NationalityRussian, American
Alma materNovosibirsk State University
Leningrad State University
Known forNonassociative algebra
AwardsFields Medal (1994)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Chicago
Yale University
University of California, San Diego
Southern University of Science and Technology
Doctoral students

Biography

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Zelmanov was born on 7 Septemner 1955 into a Jewish family in Khabarovsk. He entered Novosibirsk State University in 1972, when he was 17 years old.[2] He obtained a doctoral degree at Novosibirsk State University in 1980, and a higher degree at Leningrad State University in 1985. He had a position in Novosibirsk until 1987, when he left the Soviet Union.

 
Efim Zelmanov (right) with the University of Lincoln (UK) Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hunter (left) after receiving Honorary DSc degree. 5th September 2016, Lincoln, UK.

In 1990, he moved to the United States, becoming a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was at the University of Chicago in 1994/5, then at Yale University. In 1996, he became a Distinguished Professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study and in 2002, he became a professor at the University of California, San Diego.[3] In 2022, he moved to the People's Republic of China and joined the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China.[4][5] He served as a chair professor and the scientific director of the SUSTech International Center for Mathematics.

Zelmanov was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2001,[6] becoming, at the age of 47, the youngest member of the mathematics section of the academy.[7] He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996)[8] and a foreign member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.[9] In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[10]

Zelmanov gave invited talks at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Warsaw (1983), Kyoto (1990) and Zurich (1994).[11] He delivered the 2004 Turán Memorial Lectures.[12] He was awarded Honorary Doctor degrees from the University of Hagen, Germany (1997),[13] the University of Alberta, Canada (2011),[14] Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine (2012),[15] the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander, Spain (2015)[16] and the University of Lincoln, UK (2016).[17][18]

Zelmanov's early work was on Jordan algebras in the case of infinite dimensions. He was able to show that Glennie's identity in a certain sense generates all identities that hold. He then showed that the Engel identity for Lie algebras implies nilpotence, in the case of infinite dimensions.

Notable publications

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  • Zelʹmanov, E.I. Solution of the restricted Burnside problem for groups of odd exponent. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR Ser. Mat. 54 (1990), no. 1, 42–59, 221. English translation in Math. USSR-Izv. 36 (1991), no. 1, 41–60. doi:10.1070/IM1991v036n01ABEH001946
  • Zelʹmanov, E.I. Solution of the restricted Burnside problem for 2-groups. Mat. Sb. 182 (1991), no. 4, 568–592. English translation in Math. USSR-Sb. 72 (1992), no. 2, 543–565. doi:10.1070/SM1992v072n02ABEH001272

References

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  1. ^ "Efim I. Zelmanov".
  2. ^ Interview with Zelmanov (in Russian)
  3. ^ "UCSD Press Releases: Fields Medalist Joins Mathematics Faculty at UCSD".
  4. ^ "Math master starts full-time at SUSTech".
  5. ^ "Zelmanov's Homepage at SUStech".
  6. ^ National Academy of Sciences Elections, Notices of the American Mathematical Society 48 (2001), no. 7, p. 722
  7. ^ FIELDS MEDALIST JOINS MATHEMATICS FACULTY AT UCSD, University of California at San Diego news release, October 28, 2002
  8. ^ American Academy Elections, Notices of the American Mathematical Society 43 (1996), no. 7, p. 781
  9. ^ Efim Zelmanov to receive honorary doctor of science degree from University of Alberta Archived 2014-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, University of Alberta press release, June 14, 2011
  10. ^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2013-09-01.
  11. ^ Biographies of candidates 1998, Notices of the American Mathematical Society 45 (1998), no. 8, p. 1018
  12. ^ "Turán Memorial Lectures".
  13. ^ "Ehrenpromotionen".
  14. ^ "Honorary degree recipients set to inspire - University of Alberta". www.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  15. ^ "Honorary Doctors". www.univ.kiev.ua. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  16. ^ España, La Nueva (7 February 2015). "Otín y Zelmanov, doctores honoris causa por la Universidad Menéndez Pelayo". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  17. ^ "Visit of Professor Efim Zelmanov | LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER". newsletter.lms.ac.uk. July 11, 2016. Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  18. ^ University of Lincoln (31 August 2016). "Celebrating degree success as Class of 2016 graduate". University of Lincoln Press Office. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
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