Home Page of Eugene B. Dynkin

Professor of Mathematics , at Cornell University

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Research Profile

Lie groups were the main subject of Dynkin's earlier research. "Dynkin's Diagrams" are widely used by mathematicians and physicists. After 1954, probability theory became the central field of his interests. Principal efforts were devoted to Markov processes and their connections with potential theory and partial differential equations. Other work includes research in mathematical statistics (sufficient statistics, exponential families), optimal control (optimal stopping, control with incomplete data) and mathematical economics (economic growth and economic equilibrium under uncertainty). More recently, he has been working on the relationship between Markov processes and random fields which arise in statistical physics and quantum field theory. Since 1988, branching measure-valued processes have become the main subject of his research (the name "superprocesses" suggested by him for these processes is now standard in mathematical literature). He established connections between superdiffusions and a class of nonlinear partial differential equations that makes it possible to apply powerful analytic tools for investigating the path behavior of superdiffusions and that provides a new probabilistic approach to problems on nonlinear PDEs. New directions - the description of all positive solutions of a certain class of nonlinear equations and the study of removable boundary singularities of such solutions - have been started in a series of joint papers of Dynkin and Kuznetsov.

For additional data go to the Scientific Biography

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Curriculum Vitae (Short Version)

Education:

• M.S. in Mathematics, Moscow University, 1945
• Ph.D. (Candidate of Physics and Mathematics), Moscow University, 1948
• Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Moscow University, 1951

Positions:

• Assistant Professor, Moscow University, 1948-49

• Associate Professor, Moscow University, 1949-54

• Professor, Moscow University, 1954-68

• Senior Research Scholar, Central Institute for Mathematics and Economics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 1968-76

• Professor, Cornell University, 1977-

• A.R.Bullis Professor of Mathematics, Cornell University, 1989-

Honors:

• Prize of the Moscow Mathematical Society, 1951

• Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Fellow, 1962

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow, 1978

• National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Member, 1985

• American Mathematical Society, Leroy P. Steele Prize for Total Mathematical Work, 1993

• Moscow Mathematical Society, Honorary Member, 1995

• Doctor Honoris Causa of the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6), 1997

• Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Warwick (England), 2003

• Doctor Honoris Causa of the Independent Moscow University (Russia), 2003

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Click the extended CV for Selected Invited Lectures and Professional Activities.

List of Students

Here is a list of students of E. B. Dynkin.

Genealogy Tree of Dynkin's School

http://www.math.cornell.edu/Research/Genealogy/Dynkin/contents.html

Some Memories
Dobrushin, Karpelevich, Minlos, Uspenskii, Khasminskii, Vvedenskaya, Yushkevich (Sept. 16, 1989) Part 1
Dobrushin, Karpelevich, Minlos, Uspenskii, Khasminskii, Vvedenskaya, Yushkevich (Sept. 16, 1989) Part 2
Dobrushin, Karpelevich, Minlos, Uspenskii, Khasminskii, Vvedenskaya, Yushkevich (Sept. 16, 1989) Part 3
Karpelevich (Sept. 11, 1989)

Memorial meeting of the Moscow Mathematical Society in honor of Karpelevich
1. Shkol'nyi kruzhok
2. Pervyi kurs
3. Chetvertyj kurs, sem'ya
4. Pesenka vypusknikov mehmata 1950-h godov

Karpelevich's first steps in mathematics (a video of a talk by Dynkin, AVI)
Karpelevich's first steps in mathematics (a video of a talk by Dynkin, AVI - MP4 Codec)
Karpelevich's first steps in mathematics (an introduction by Dynkin, PDF)
Photograph of Karpelevich as a youth
Picture of M_n

List of Publications

The list consists of three parts:

• Books
• Research papers
• Miscellanea (popular articles, book reviews etc)
• Selected Papers with Commentary (Contents)

Recent books

• Superdiffusions and Positive Solutions of  Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations (American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2004)  [Revised version with corrections incorporated on  October 23, 2005]
• Diffusions, Superdiffusions and Partial Differential Equations (American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2002)   [ Revised version with corrections incorporated on October 23, 2005]

Address

Eugene B. Dynkin
Department of Mathematics
Malott Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-4201
Phone: (607) 255-3404 (of)
(607) 273-1071 (h)
Email ebd1@cornell.edu

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Last updated September 30, 2007