Smirnov, Vladimir Ivanovich

Born May 29 (June 10), 1887, in St. Petersburg; died Feb. 11, 1974, in Leningrad. Soviet mathematician. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943; corresponding member, 1932). Hero of Socialist Labor (1967).

Smirnov graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1910 and became a professor there in 1915. From 1912 to 1930 he was a professor at the St. Petersberg (Leningrad) Institute of Railroad Engineers. Between 1929 and 1935 he was on the staff of the Institute of Seismology and the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Smirnov’s principal works are on the theory of functions of a complex variable; they deal with the uniformization of multiple-valued analytic functions, Fuchsian groups, Fuchsian functions, the completeness of a system of polynomials orthogonal on a rectifiable closed path, and the limiting values of analytic functions. In a number of studies done with S. L. Sobolev, Smirnov developed a new method for the solution of certain problems in the theory of wave propagation in elastic media with plane boundaries. He also investigated functionally invariant solutions of linear elliptic equations with an arbitrary number of variables.

For his work A Course of Higher Mathematics (vols. 1–5, 1924-47), Smirnov received the State Prize of the USSR in 1948. His students included G. M. Goluzin, I. A. Lappo-Dani-levskii, and S. L. Sobolev. Smirnov was awarded four Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.

Born Jan. 18 (31), 1910, in Moscow. Soviet geologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1962; corresponding member, 1958). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Smirnov graduated from the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute in 1934. From 1934 to 1937 he was a staff member of the Tadzhik-Pamir Expedition. In addition, from 1934 to 1941 and from 1944 to 1949 he was on the staff of the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute; he became a professor at the institute in 1946. Between 1941 and 1944 he was chief geologist of the Khaidarken Mercury Combine in Middle Asia. Smirnov was chairman of the All-Union Commission on Reserves of Useful Minerals from 1946 to 1949 and deputy minister of geology of the USSR from 1946 to 1951. Between 1949 and 1952 he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold. He became a professor at Moscow University in 1951 and was made head of the subdepartment of useful minerals there in 1952.

Smirnov’s principal work was in the geology of ore deposits. He developed the foundations of the theory of the formation and quantitative evaluation of useful minerals in the earth. Regional patterns were established by him for the formation and distribution of ore deposits in the USSR. Smirnov worked on problems of the metallogeny of mercury, antimony, lead, zinc, and uranium. He described the metallogenetic characteristics of the floor of the world ocean. He also developed a general genetic classification of deposits of useful minerals.

In 1964, Smirnov became chairman of the Scientific Council on Ore Formation of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1968 he was made editor in chief of the journal Geoiogiia rud-nykh mestorozhdenii (Geology of Ore Deposits). Between 1969 and 1975 he was a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and served as academician-secretary of the Academy’s Department of Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry. He became vice-president of the International Association on the Genesis of Ore Deposits in 1964 and of the International Union of Geological Sciences in 1968. Smirnov is a member of the Serbo-Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He received the Lenin Prize in 1972 for his work on the ore content of volcanogenic formations. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.