Editing Vladimir Arnold (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Владимир Арнольд в 1963 г.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Arnold in 1963.]]

Vladimir Igorevich Arnold was born on 12 June 1937 in [[Odesa]], [[Soviet Union]] (now Odesa, [[Ukraine]]). His father was Igor Vladimirovich Arnold (1900–1948), a mathematician. His mother was Nina Alexandrovna Arnold (1909–1986, ''[[Name at birth|née]]'' Isakovich), a Jewish art historian.<ref name=obituary>{{citation|first1=Sabir M.|last1=Gusein-Zade|author1-link=Sabir Gusein-Zade|first2=Alexander N|last2= Varchenko|author2-link=Alexander Varchenko| url=http://www.ems-ph.org/journals/newsletter/pdf/2010-12-78.pdf|title= Obituary: Vladimir Arnold (12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010)|journal=Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society|volume= 78 |date=December 2010|pages= 28–29}}</ref> While a school student, Arnold once asked his father on the reason why the multiplication of two negative numbers yielded a positive number, and his father provided an answer involving the [[Field (mathematics)#Classic definition|field properties]] of [[real number]]s and the preservation of the [[distributive property]]. Arnold was deeply disappointed with this answer, and developed an aversion to the [[axiomatic method]] that lasted through his life.<ref name="Arnold2007">{{cite book | author = Vladimir I. Arnold | date = 2007 | title = Yesterday and Long Ago | publisher = Springer | pages = 19–26 | isbn = 978-3-540-28734-6 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7c4oAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> When Arnold was thirteen, his uncle Nikolai B. Zhitkov,<ref name="earlylife">''Arnold: Swimming Against the Tide'', p. 3</ref> who was an engineer, told him about [[calculus]] and how it could be used to understand some physical phenomena. This contributed to sparking his interest for mathematics, and he started to study by himself the mathematical books his father had left to him, which included some works of [[Leonhard Euler]] and [[Charles Hermite]].<ref>Табачников, С. Л. . "Интервью с В.И.Арнольдом", ''[[Kvant (magazine)|Квант]]'', 1990, Nº 7, pp. 2–7. (''in Russian'')</ref>

Arnold entered [[Moscow State University]] in 1954.<ref>Sevryuk, M.B. ''Translation of the V. I. Arnold paper “From Superpositions to KAM Theory” (Vladimir Igorevich Arnold. Selected — 60, Moscow: PHASIS, 1997, pp. 727–740). Regul. Chaot. Dyn. 19, 734–744 (2014)''. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1560354714060100</ref> Among his teachers there were [[Andrey Kolmogorov|A. N. Kolmogorov]], [[Israel Gelfand|I. M. Gelfand]], [[Lev Pontryagin|L. S. Pontriagin]] and [[Pavel Alexandrov]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/199704/arnold.pdf|journal=[[Notices of the American Mathematical Society|Notices of the AMS]]|date=April 1997|volume=44|issue=4|title=An Interview with Vladimir Arnol'd|pages=432–438}}</ref> While a student of Andrey Kolmogorov at [[Moscow State University]] and still a teenager, Arnold showed in 1957 that any [[continuous function]] of several variables can be constructed with a finite number of two-variable functions, thereby solving [[Hilbert's thirteenth problem]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Robertz|title=Formal Algorithmic Elimination for PDEs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kvPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-11445-3|page=192}}</ref> This is the [[Kolmogorov–Arnold representation theorem]].

Arnold obtained his PhD in 1961, with Kolmogorov as advisor.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=17493 | title=Vladimir Arnold - the Mathematics Genealogy Project }}</ref>

After graduating from Moscow State University in 1959, he worked there until 1986 (a professor since 1965), and then at [[Steklov Mathematical Institute]].

He became an academician of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union]] ([[Russian Academy of Science]] since 1991) in 1990.<ref name="GRE">[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] (2005), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 2.</ref> Arnold can be said to have initiated the theory of [[symplectic topology]] as a distinct discipline. The [[Arnold conjecture]] on the number of fixed points of [[symplectomorphism|Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms]] and [[Lagrangian intersection]]s was also a motivation in the development of [[Floer homology]].

In 1999 he suffered a serious bicycle accident in Paris, resulting in [[traumatic brain injury]]. He regained consciousness after a few weeks but had [[amnesia]] and for some time could not even recognize his own wife at the hospital.<ref>{{cite book | last=Arnold | first=Vladimir I. | title=Yesterday and Long Ago | publisher=Springer ; Phasis | publication-place=Berlin ; New York : Moscow | date=2007 | page=V | isbn=978-3-540-28734-6 | oclc=76794406}}</ref> He went on to make a good recovery.<ref>Polterovich and Scherbak (2011)</ref>

Arnold worked at the Steklov Mathematical Institute in Moscow and at [[Paris Dauphine University]] up until his death. His PhD students include [[Rifkat Bogdanov]], [[Alexander Givental]], [[Victor Goryunov]], [[Sabir Gusein-Zade]], [[Emil Horozov]], [[Yulij Ilyashenko]], [[Boris Khesin]], [[Askold Khovanskii]], [[Nikolay Nekhoroshev]], [[Boris Shapiro (mathematician)|Boris Shapiro]], [[Alexander Varchenko]], [[Victor Anatolyevich Vassiliev|Victor Vassiliev]] and [[Vladimir Zakalyukin]].<ref name="mathgene">{{MathGenealogy|id=17493}}</ref>

To his students and colleagues Arnold was known also for his sense of humour. For example, once at his seminar in Moscow, at the beginning of the school year, when he usually was formulating new problems, he said:

{{blockquote|There is a general principle that a stupid man can ask such questions to which one hundred wise men would not be able to answer. In accordance with this principle I shall formulate some problems.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/7886200/Vladimir-Arnold.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Vladimir Arnold | date=12 July 2010}}</ref>}}

=== Death ===
Arnold died of [[acute pancreatitis]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Vladimir Arnold Dies at 72; Pioneering Mathematician |author=Kenneth Chang |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/science/11arnold.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=11 June 2010 |access-date=12 June 2013}}</ref> on 3 June 2010 in Paris, nine days before his 73rd birthday.<ref>{{cite news|title=Number's up as top mathematician Vladimir Arnold dies|newspaper=[[Herald Sun]]|date=4 June 2010|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/numbers-up-as-top-mathematician-vladimir-arnold-dies/story-e6frf7jx-1225875367896|access-date=6 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614172804/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/numbers-up-as-top-mathematician-vladimir-arnold-dies/story-e6frf7jx-1225875367896|archive-date=2011-06-14}}</ref> He was buried on 15 June in Moscow, at the [[Novodevichy Convent|Novodevichy Monastery]].<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.pdmi.ras.ru/~arnsem/Arnold/ |title=From V. I. Arnold's web page |access-date=12 June 2013}}</ref>

In a telegram to Arnold's family, [[Russian President]] [[Dmitry Medvedev]] stated:

{{blockquote|The death of Vladimir Arnold, one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, is an irretrievable loss for world science. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution made by academician Arnold to modern mathematics and the prestige of Russian science.

Teaching had a special place in Vladimir Arnold's life and he had great influence as an enlightened mentor who taught several generations of talented scientists.

The memory of Vladimir Arnold will forever remain in the hearts of his colleagues, friends and students, as well as everyone who knew and admired this brilliant man.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/437#sel=3:1,5:29|title=Condolences to the family of Vladimir Arnold|date=15 June 2010|publisher=[[Presidential Press and Information Office]]|access-date=1 September 2011}}</ref>}}