Thursday, October 29, 2015

Andrei Zelevinsky Research Instructor Fund

Northeastern University has established a prestigious post-doctoral position named in Andrei's memory. Please spread the word.
Help us celebrate the legacy of a truly remarkable teacher, mentor, and mathematician. Your gift to the Andrei Zelevinsky Research Instructor Fund honors his contributions to the mathematical community, while investing in great mathematicians of the future.

Winner of the Silver Medal of the International Mathematical Olympiad at age 16, Professor Andrei Zelevinsky went on to become a world-famous mathematician, a gifted teacher, and a dedicated mentor. He was especially renowned for the Bernstein-Zelevinsky classification of representations of p-adic groups, as well as for the discovery, with Sergey Fomin, of cluster algebras.

During his 22-year career at Northeastern, Professor Zelevinsky’s impressive body of work resulted in an invitation to lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (Berlin, 1998), the Humboldt Research Award (2004), election as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2013), and a University Distinguished Professor award from Northeastern University (2013). His numerous contributions to mathematics included not only ground-breaking research but also a dedicated enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring future generations of students. He led weekend classes for high school students, taught undergraduates at all levels, and organized advanced seminars for graduate students. Through his passionate commitment to scholarship and learning he fostered the intellectual and personal growth of his students.

The Mathematics Department at Northeastern University is proud to announce the creation of a prestigious post-doctoral position: the Andrei Zelevinsky Research Instructor. This position, named in Professor Zelevinsky’s memory, will serve to honor his tremendous contributions to the field of mathematics, by supporting promising young mathematics researchers at the start of their careers.

With the generosity of a lead donor, members of the mathematics department, alumni and colleagues we have raised over $60,000 toward the goal of $100,000. In addition we have a pledge for $20,000 contingent upon raising at least $80,000 by December 2015.

We invite you to support the Andrei Zelevinsky Research Instructor Fund to recognize his extraordinary legacy.


If you have questions about this fund, please contact Lisa Pedulla, Development Officer, College of Science, at l.pedulla(at)neu(dot)edu or (617) 373-8392, or go to http://give.northeastern.edu/fund/166 to contribute online.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Boris Feigin's article

Boris Feigin has written a remarkable article about his lifelong friendship with Andrei. Thank you, Borya, for the beautiful tribute to Andrei's memory!

As it happens, the latest MMJ issue is dedicated to Borya's 60th birthday. Our (belated) congratulations! Many happy returns!

And thank you again, Sergei Yakovenko, for making the articles available to non-subscribers as well!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Юноше, обдумывающему житьё

Tanya Khovanova posted a list of problems that Andrei had considered important for undergraduate students to think through and solve by themselves.

Problem 1. Let G be a finite group of order |G|. Let H be its subgroup, such that the index (G:H) is the smallest prime factor of |G|. Prove that H is a normal subgroup.

Problem 2. Consider a procedure: given a polygon in a plane, the next polygon is formed by the centers of its edges. Prove that if we start with a polygon and perform the procedure infinitely many times, the resulting polygon will converge to a point. In another variation, instead of using the centers of edges to construct the next polygon, use the centers of gravity of k consecutive vertices.

Problem 3. Find numbers an such that 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + … + 1/k = ln k + γ + a1/k + … + an/kn + …

Problem 4. For x1 not equal to zero, let xk = sin xk-1. Find the asymptotic behavior of xk.

Problem 5. Calculate the integral from 0 to 1 of x−x over x with the precision 0.001.

Friday, January 30, 2015

62

Andrei would have been 62 today.




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Photo courtesy of Katya Z.