Sergei antonovich bernstein biography sampler

1. Biography of Sergey Bernstein
2. Contributions in Mathematics
3. Awards and Honors

Biography of Sergey Bernstein

Sergey Bernstein was a Russian and Soviet mathematician, born to physiologist Nathan Bernstein. He was also the brother of psychiatrist Alexander Bernstein.

Contributions in Mathematics

In 1904, Sergey Bernstein dedicated his dissertation to solving Hilbert's 19th problem. He discovered conditions for the analyticity of solutions to second-order elliptic and parabolic equations. He also developed new methods for solving boundary value problems for nonlinear elliptic equations and contributed to the creation of a new branch of function theory called constructive function theory.

During his proof of the Weierstrass approximation theorem, Bernstein constructed polynomials that proved to be useful in various areas of mathematics. These polynomials are now known as Bernstein polynomials.

Bernstein also made significant contributions to probability theory, proposing the first axiomatization in 1917. He continued and, in a sense, completed the research of the St. Petersburg school of Chebyshev-Markov on limit theorems. He developed the theory of weakly dependent random variables and studied stochastic differential equations. Additionally, Bernstein identified several applications of probabilistic methods in physics, statistics, and biology.

Awards and Honors

Sergey Bernstein was elected as an Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1929 (corresponding member in 1924). He became a member of the German Mathematical Society in 1926, and a member of the French Mathematical Society in 1944.

In recognition of his contributions, he received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Algeria in 1944 and the University of Paris in 1945. Bernstein was also elected as a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1955 (corresponding member in 1928).

In 1942, Sergey Bernstein was awarded the Stalin Prize for his outstanding achievements.