O.A.Ladyzhenskaya (original) (raw)

Olga Ladyzhenskaya was born in Kologriv near Kostroma in a family of a teacher of mathematics. From the very childhood Olga showed a special interest and strong talent in mathematics so that she and her father Aleksandr Ivanovich could study calculus together "on equal terms". The news that he was put into prison was a shock for her.

In 1939 she finished the secondary school course with all excellent marks in her certificate and moved to Leningrad to go on with her education. But it was out of access for a young person whose father was considered an enemy of Nation to enter the Leningrad State University, so she had to content herself with entering the Pokrovski Teachers' Training College. When the World War II began she had to go back to Kologriv where she taught mathematics at a local secondary school. In 1943 she became a student again, this time at the Moscow State University. After she graduated in 1947, Olga moved to Leningrad due to family circumstances and became a postgraduate at the Leningrad State University.

In autumn 1949, after having defended her PhD thesis, Olga Ladyzhenskaya took a position at the Leningrad State University, and in 1954 she also became a researcher at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Since 1962, O. Ladyzhenskaya held the position of the Head of the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics in this institute.

Olga Ladyzhenskaya has published more than 250 papers, seven monographs, and the textbook The Boundary Value Problems of Mathematical Physics.

Olga Ladyzhenskaya was a member of the St.Petersburg Mathematical Society since 1959 when the Society was recreated. She was its vice-president for many years and its president between 1990 and 1998, and elected Honorary Member of the Society.