AN OUTSTANDING SOVIET MATHEMATICIAN SERGEI MERGELIAN

Sergei Mergelian was born in Yerevan. As a schoolboy he had many interests, but most of all he liked mathematics. When he left school, he entered the Yerevan University and became particularly interested in the theory of complex numbers and soon published his first scientific work.

At the age of twenty he graduated from the Yerevan University and came to Moscow to continue his education. He became a post-graduate at the Mathematics Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. There he developed his gift for mathematics under the supervision of Academician M. Keldysh.

He published two works on best approximations in the sphere of complex variables. These works were the subject of his dissertation for a Master's Degree. The day came when he had to present his dissertation. He was very excited and nervous.

The members of the Learned Council unanimously awarded him the degree of Doctor of Physico-Mathe-matical Sciences, instead of a mere Master's Degree.

Sergei Mergelian returned to Yerevan to teach at the University there.

In a short time he became a State Prize Winner.

In 1953, at the age of 25, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and at 27 became an academician. Today Mergelian is director of the Scientific Research Institute of Mathematical Machines in Yerevan.

complex variables комплексные переменные

the Learned Council Ученый Совет

Master's Degree степень кандидата

the scientific research institute научно-исследовательский институт

State Prize Winner Лауреат Государственной премии