Lazar Liusternik
Liusternik, Lazar’ Aronovich
Born Dec. 19 (31), 1899, in Zdunska Wola (now in Poland). Soviet mathematician. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946).
Liusternik graduated from Moscow University in 1922 and was appointed a professor there in 1931. He was the first (1926) to apply the method of finite differences to the solution of the Dirichlet problem. Together with L. G. Shnirel’man, he used topological methods in analysis and proved the theorem of three geodetics. Liusternik also worked in functional analysis and computer mathematics. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1946), he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and several medals.