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Andrey (Andrei) Andreyevich Markov (Russian: Андре́й Андре́евич Ма́рков) (June 14, 1856 N.S. – July 20, 1922) was a Russian mathematician. He is best known for his work on the theory of stochastic processes. His research later became known as Markov chains. He and his younger brother Vladimir Andreevich Markov (1871 – 1897) proved Markov brothers' inequality. His son, another Andrey Andreevich Markov (1903 – 1979), was also a notable mathematician, making contributions on constructive mathematics and recursive function theory. Andrey Andreevich Markov was born in Ryazan as
the son of the secretary of the public forest management of Ryazan,
Andrey Grigorevich Markov, and his first wife Nadezhda Petrovna Markova. In
the beginning of the 1860s Andrey Grigorevich moved to St Petersburg to
become an asset manager of the princess Ekaterina Aleksandrovna
Valvatyeva. In
1866 Andrey Andreevich's school life began with his entrance into Saint
Petersburg's fifth grammar school. Already during his school time
Andrey was intensely engaged in higher mathematics. As a 17-year-old
grammar school student he informed Bunyakovsky, Korkin and Yegor Zolotarev about
an apparently new method to solve linear ordinary differential
equations and was invited to the so-called Korkin Saturdays, where
Korkin's students regularly met. In 1874 he finished the school and
began his studies at the physico-mathematical faculty of St Petersburg University. Among his teachers were Yulian Sokhotski (differential calculus, higher algebra), Konstantin Posse (analytic geometry), Yegor Zolotarev (integral calculus), Pafnuty Chebyshev (number theory, probability theory), Aleksandr Korkin (ordinary and partial differential equations), Okatov (mechanism theory), Osip Somov (mechanics) and Budaev (descriptive and higher geometry). In
1877 he was awarded the gold medal for his outstanding solution of the
problem "About Integration of Differential Equations by Continuous
Fractions with an Application to the Equation "
In the following year he passed the candidate examinations and remained
at the university to prepare for the lecturer's position. In
April 1880 Markov defended his master thesis "About Binary Quadratic
Forms with Positive Determinant", which was encouraged by Aleksandr
Korkin and Yegor Zolotarev. Five
years later, in January 1885, there followed his doctoral thesis "About Some Applications of Algebraic Continuous Fractions". His pedagogical work began after the defense of his master thesis in autumn 1880. As a privatdozent he
lectured on differential and integral calculus. Later he lectured
alternately on "introduction to analysis", probability theory
(succeeding Chebyshev who had left the university in 1882) and calculus
of differences. From 1895/96 until 1905 he additionally lectured on
differential calculus. One
year after the defense of the doctoral thesis, he was appointed
extraordinary professor (1886) and in the same year he was elected
adjunct to the Academy of Sciences. In 1890, after the death of Viktor
Bunyakovsky, Markov became extraordinary member of the academy. His
promotion to an ordinary professor of St Petersburg University followed
in autumn 1894. In 1896, he was elected ordinary member of the academy as the successor of Chebyshev.
In 1905 he was appointed merited professor and got the right to retire
which he immediately used. Till 1910, however, he continued to lecture
calculus of differences. In
connection with the student riots in 1908, professors and lecturers of
Saint Petersburg University were ordered to observe their students.
Markov initially refused to accept this decree and wrote an explanation
in which he declined to be an "agent of the governance". Markov was
rejected from a further teaching activity at the Saint Petersburg
University, and he eventually decided to retire from the university. In
1913 the council of Saint Petersburg elected nine scientists honorary
members of the university. Markov was among them, but his election was
not affirmed by the minister of education. The affirmation was done
only four years later, after the February revolution in 1917. Markov
then resumed his teaching activities and lectured probability theory
and calculus of differences until his death in 1922.
In 1912 Markov in protest to Leo Tolstoy's excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church requested that he too be excommunicated. As such Markov was formally excommunicated from the Church. |