Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov

Abstract

K R Parthasarathy received his Ph D from Calcutta Univers i ty in 1962. He taught at ISI, Calcutta, University of Sheffield, UK, Univers i ty of Manchester , UK, Univers i ty of Bombay, l iT, Delh i and ISI, Delhi; for about f i f teen years, before he retired in June 1996, he was at ISI, D~elhi. He is currently C V Raman Professor of INSA. Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, one of the most eminent mathematicians of the twentieth century and the greatest probability theorist of recent times, died in Moscow on 20 October 1987, after a pT61onged illness, at the ripe age of 84. His life was one of intense mathematical creativity spanning six and a half decades and encompassing several disciplines. His achievement was outstanding, and he was presented with numerous honours and awards, inc lud ing several honorary doctorates, foreign membership of many academies of science, among them the Royal Society of London, the National Academy of Sciences of the USA and the French Academy of Sciences, Paris. He was also the recipient of several orders of Lenin, and of the Balzan International prize in 1963; this he shared with Pope John XXIII, the historian S Morrison, the chemist K Frisch and the composer P Hindemith.