Leonid Khachiyan

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Leonid Khachiyan
Leningrad, Soviet Union
DiedApril 29, 2005(2005-04-29) (aged 52)
South Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
CitizenshipSoviet Union, United States
ChildrenAnna Khachiyan
AwardsFulkerson Prize (1982)
Scientific career
InstitutionsComputer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
Rutgers University

Leonid Genrikhovich Khachiyan[1][a] (/kɑːtʃiːən/;[4] Russian: Леони́д Ге́нрихович Хачия́н; May 3, 1952 – April 29, 2005) was a Soviet and American mathematician and computer scientist.

He was most famous for his

polynomial running time. Even though this algorithm was shown to be impractical, it has inspired other randomized algorithms for convex programming
and is considered a significant theoretical breakthrough.

Early life and education

Khachiyan was born on May 3, 1952, in

theoretical mathematics from the Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and in 1984 a D.Sc. in computer science from the same institution.[6][4][1]

Career

Khachiyan began his career at the Soviet Academy of Sciences,

professor[11] of computer science at Rutgers in 1992.[4][6] By 2005, he held the position of Professor II at Rutgers, reserved for those faculty who have achieved scholarly eminence in their discipline.[6]

Work on linear programming

Ellipsoid method

Khachiyan is best known for his four-page February 1979 paper

Laszlo Lovász in 1981.[15][9][13] It was Gács and Lovász who first brought attention to Khachiyan's paper at the International Symposium on Mathematical Programming in Montreal in August 1979.[13][6] It was further popularized when Gina Kolata reported it in Science Magazine on November 2, 1979.[16][11]

Khachiyan's theory is considered a groundbreaking one that "helped advance the field of linear programming."[11] Giorgio Ausiello noted that the method was not practical, "but it was a real breakthrough for the world of operations research and computer science, since it proved that the design of polynomial time algorithms for linear programming was possible and in fact opened the way to other, more practical, algorithms that were designed in the following years."[17]

Personal life and death

Khachiyan spoke Russian and English, but not

New York Times profile of him described Khachiyan as "a relaxed, friendly young man in a sweater who speaks a little English, which he learned in high school."[1]

He was known as "Leo"[7][19] and "Lenya" to his friends and colleagues.[20] Václav Chvátal described him as "selfless, open, patient, sympathetic, understanding, considerate."[19] Michael Todd, another colleague, described him as "cynical about politics," "very modest and kind to his friends," and "intolerant of condescension and pomposity."[9]

Khachiyan married Olga Pischikova Reynberg, of

heart attack in South Brunswick, New Jersey on April 29, 2005, at the age of 52.[4][6][11]

Recognition

In 1982 he was awarded the prestigious

Mathematical Programming Society and the American Mathematical Society[10] for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics,[6] particularly his 1979 article "A polynomial algorithm in linear programming."[22]

Khachiyan was considered a "noted expert in computer science whose work helped computers process extremely complex problems."

New York Times obituary.[4] Bahman Kalantari, a friend and colleague at Rutgers, wrote: "Surely, Khachiyan shall always remain to be among the greatest and most legendary figures in the field of mathematical programming."[18]

References

Notes
  1. ^ His last name was often spelled in English as Khachian.[2][3] Anglicized as Leonid Henry Khachiyan.[4]
Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Whitney, Craig R. (November 27, 1979). "Soviet Mathematician Is Obscure No More". The New York Times.
  2. doi:10.1126/science.206.4422.1022-c
    .
  3. ^ Browne, Malcolm W. (November 7, 1979). "A Soviet Discovery Rocks World of Mathematics". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pearce, Jeremy (May 22, 2005). "Leonid Khachiyan Is Dead at 52; Advanced Computer Math". The New York Times.
  5. S2CID 56588045
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "World Renowned Computer Scientist Leonid G. Khachiyan Dies at 52". Rutgers University Department of Computer Science. Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. (archived PDF)
  7. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.dam.2008.04.013
    .
  8. ^ Khachiyan, Anna (April 25, 2020). "Family portrait of Armenian ancestors, Nagorno-Karabakh, 1920s (great great grandparents in the center, grandmother little girl on the left with the pigtails)". Twitter. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  9. ^
    CiteSeerX 10.1.1.131.3938
    .
  10. ^ a b c "Leonid Khachiyan, 52; Computer Science Expert at Rutgers". Los Angeles Times. May 5, 2005.
  11. ^ a b c d e Madden, Andrew P. (September 1, 2005). "Obituary: Mystery Man". MIT Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (archived PDF)
  12. Soviet Mathematics Doklady
    20, 191-194, 1979).
  13. ^
    JSTOR 170362. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2015-07-01.
  14. ^ Khachiyan, L. G. 1980. "Polynomial Algorithms in Linear Programming". Zhurnal Vychisditel'noi Matematiki i Matematicheskoi Fiziki (USSR Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Physics) 20, 51-68.
  15. ISBN 978-3-642-00805-4
    .
  16. PMID 17759415
    .
  17. ISBN 9783319626802
    .
  18. ^
    S2CID 15568389. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2020-01-13.
  19. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.dam.2007.08.001
    .
  20. ^ Todd, Michael J. (1 December 2005). "SIAM: Leonid Khachiyan, 1952 - 2005: An Appreciation". archive.siam.org. Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  21. ^ Khachiyan, Anna (December 4, 2019). "I had such a shambolic, dysfunctional upbringing my parents didn't even bother to teach me chess — unheard of and frankly shameful for Russian family of Armenian and Ashkenazi origins lol!". Twitter. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  22. ^ "The Fulkerson Prize". mathopt.org. Mathematical Optimization Society. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019.
  23. ^ "Leonid Khachiyan, professor, leading computer scientist". The Boston Globe. (via Associated Press). May 5, 2005. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017.

External links


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