Pavel Korovkin


Pavel Petrovich Korovkin , was a Soviet mathematician whose main fields of research were orthogonal polynomials, approximation theory and potential theory. In 1947 he proved a generalization of Egorov's theorem: from the early 1950s on, his research interests turned to functional analysis and he examined the stability of the exterior Dirichlet problem and the convergence and approximation properties of linear positive operators on spaces of continuous functions. The set of terms and Korovkin approximation are named after him.

Life and career

Korovkin was born to a poor peasant family. He lost his father early and grew from 1914 to 1920 at an orphanage. In 1930 he graduated high school in Leningrad. As the winner of a mathematics contest he had a right to enter the Leningrad State University without entrance exams. After a year of working at a factory he entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics. His scientific advisor was V.I. Smirnov. Korovkin earned his doctorate in 1939 with a dissertation on orthogonal polynomials. He then was appointed to Kalinin Pedagogical Institute.
At the beginning of Great Patriotic War Korovkin voluntarily enlisted to the Red Army. He started as a cannon platoon chief and till the end of war promoted to artillery regiment chief. He was awarded with Order of the Red Star.
In December 1945, he continued his work at the Kalinin Pedagogical Institute, in 1947 with a thesis on convergence of polynomial sequences, and was appointed professor in 1948. At the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute from 1958 to 1970 he headed the department of higher mathematics, then he became head of the Department of Mathematical Analysis at the Kaluga State Pedagogical Institute.

Selected publications