U.S.S.R. Comput. Maths. Math. Phyr Vol. 19, p. 1-2 0 Pergamon Press Ltd. 1980. Printed in Great Britain.

0041-5553/79/0401-0001$07.50/0

ALEKSANDR ANDREEVICH SAMARSKII CELEBRATES HIS SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY *

ACADEMICIAN A. A. Samarskii was 60 on 19 February 1979. He is one of the greatest Soviet scholars and organizers of science, and his name is widely known abroad as well as the USSR. He has made a fundamental contribution to mathematical physics known as the theory of mathematical models of physics, and is one of the founders of modem computational mathematics.

A typical feature of his research work has been the development of extremely effective mathematical methods for solving large-scale problems of natural science. He has been directly responsible for, or has directed the development of, effective methods for constructing and

studying mathematical models in many branches of physics, including electrodynamics, nuclear physics, plasma physics, controlled thermonuclear synthesis, magnetohydrodynamics, and other fields of the greatest scientific and technological importance. As a rule, such models amount to extremely complex non-linear systems of partial differential equations, and their solution has

in turn given rise to new fundamental trends in computational mathematics.

Professor Samarskii has evolved general principles for the construction of difference schemes for solving partial differential equations and systems of such equations, whereby the

classes of schemes that satisfy specific optima&y conditions can be isolated. He has obtained the necessary and sufficient conditions for stability of difference schemes for equations of the most general kind. His general theory of difference schemes also embraces the theory of iterative methods for solving general operator equations.

He is also responsible for the statement of a variety of new problems in the theory of differential equations and mathematical physics.

Using his methods for studying mathematical models, he has directed a large number of concrete studies and computational experiments whereby important economic problems have been solved. For his scientific work, both pure and applied, he has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Labour Red Banner, and the Lenin and

State prizes.

He does a large amount of organizational work in science. He participated directly in setting up the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics and has worked actively in it since its foundation; he is also president of the “computational physics” section of the Scientific Soviet of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR dealing with “plasma physics”. His teaching work has also been fruitful: he has been professor at Moscow State University for over twenty years, heads a department at the Moscow Physico-technical Institute, and has created a large school dealing with different fields of mathematical physics and computational mathematics; his students include over 50 candidates, and 12 doctors of science. Throughout his working life, whether in his own research, or as head of a group, and in all his contacts with other men of science, he

*Zh. @hid Mat. mat. Fir., 19, 2,275-276, 1979.

2 Aleksandr Andreevich Samarskii birthday celebration - 60

has been typified by a sound Party approach to his problems, and the application of all his efforts and knowledge to increasing the glory of Soviet science. An example is his fruitful friendship and cooper$ion with his teacher A. N. Tikhonov.

Professor Samarskii fought in the Second World War and was seriously wounded in the battles round Moscow in 1941.

We wish him good health and activity for many years yet, and further success in his various activities.