Aleksandr Kronrod: Difference between revisions
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In [[1965]] ITEP challenged and in [[1966]]-[[1967]] defeated the American chess program [[Kotok-McCarthy]]. Kronrod helped to solve the "general recursive search scheme". His participation came at great cost. The physics users at ITEP complained, thinking that the lab was being used for game playing, when the division was writing the [[Crazy Eights]] card game and chess hoping to teach a machine to think. |
In [[1965]] ITEP challenged and in [[1966]]-[[1967]] defeated the American chess program [[Kotok-McCarthy]]. Kronrod helped to solve the "general recursive search scheme". His participation came at great cost. The physics users at ITEP complained, thinking that the lab was being used for game playing, when the division was writing the [[Crazy Eights]] card game and chess hoping to teach a machine to think. |
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When the Communist Party reprimanded him for cosigning a letter with many mathematicians in defense of [[Alexander Esenin-Volpin]], the physicists were able to oust him from ITEP. He was fired from his professorship, a series of events that ended his career in mathematics. |
When the Communist Party reprimanded him for cosigning a letter with many mathematicians in defense of [[Alexander Esenin-Volpin]], the physicists were able to oust him from ITEP. He was fired from his professorship, a series of events that ended his career in mathematics.<ref name=Brudno>{{cite paper | author=[http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~brudno/ Brudno, Michael] | title=Competitions, Controversies, and Computer Chess | date=May 2000 | url=http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~brudno/essays/cchess.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate=2006-12-19}}</ref> |
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He supervised lung cancer and pneumonia research at the Gertsen cancer research institute. He spent his fortune developing milil from milk extract for cancer patients, to fill a shortage of anabola developed by his acquaintance Bogdanov in Bulgaria. He tested the medicine on himself. Kronrod nearly lost his research records when a criminal case was brought against him, regaining the records when a relative of the plantiff required milil for treatment. |
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[[Image:Kronrod-book.jpg|thumb|140px|right|Cover of ''Conversations on Programming'' by Aleksandr S. Kronrod]] |
[[Image:Kronrod-book.jpg|thumb|140px|right|Cover of ''Conversations on Programming'' by Aleksandr S. Kronrod]] |
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He is the author of several well known books, including ''"Nodes and weights of quadrature formulas. Sixteen-place tables"'' and ''"Conversations on Programming"''. A biographer wrote Kronrod gave ideas "away left and right, quite honestly being convinced that the authorship belongs to the one who implements them." |
He is the author of several well known books, including ''"Nodes and weights of quadrature formulas. Sixteen-place tables"'' and ''"Conversations on Programming"''. A biographer wrote Kronrod gave ideas "away left and right, quite honestly being convinced that the authorship belongs to the one who implements them." |
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[[Yevgeniy Landis]] was among Kronod's students and early collaborators and was one of his biographers. |
[[Yevgeniy Landis]] was among Kronod's students and early collaborators and was one of his biographers. |
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He was married and had one(?) child. |
He was married and had one(?) child. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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* [[Yevgeniy Landis|E.M. Landis]], I.M. Yaglom, ''Aleksandr Semenovich Kronrod'', Russian Math. Surveys '''56''' (2001), 993–1007. |
* [[Yevgeniy Landis|E.M. Landis]], I.M. Yaglom, ''Aleksandr Semenovich Kronrod'', Russian Math. Surveys '''56''' (2001), 993–1007. |
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:* [[Yevgeniy Landis|E.M. Landis]], I.M. Yaglom, ''Remembering A.S. Kronrod'', English translation by Viola Brudno. [http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wxg/ W. Gautschi] (ed.) [written for ''Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk'', English publication ''Math. Intelligencer'' (2002), 22-30], available at Stanford University School of Engineering [http://sccm.stanford.edu/pub/sccm/sccm00-01.ps.gz SCCM-00-01] (PostScript). Retrieved on [[19 December]], [[2006]] |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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Revision as of 10:30, 22 December 2006
Aleksandr Semenovich Kronrod | |
|---|---|
 A.S. Kronrod | |
| Born | October 22, 1921 |
| Died | October 6, 1986 |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Known for | mathematics, computer science, economics, medicine |
Aleksandr (Alexander) Semenovich Kronrod (Russian Александр Семёнович Кронрод) (October 22, 1921 – October 6, 1986) was a Russian mathematician and computer scientist, best known for his work on the Gauss-Kronrod quadrature.
Kronrod was born in Moscow, and graduated from the Moscow State University where he also did his early mathematical work. Konrod twice received the first prize of the Moscow Mathematical Society, and played an important role in building the first major Russian computer, Relay Computer RVM-1 though he liked to say his colleague N.I. Bessonov was the sole inventor.
A war injury in 1943 made him an invalid for life. About this time he went to work at the Atomic Energy Kurchatov Institute where he chose to leave pure math and pursue computational mathematics.
In his last undergraduate year, Kronrod studied with Nikolai Luzin the teacher of many of the Soviet Union's finest scientists. Kronrod and Georgy Adelson-Velsky were colleagues and Luzin's last students. Like his teacher, Kronrod led a seminar for mathematicians where he was admired and considered a prophet. The Kronod circle met between 1946-1953.
At the Moscow Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEF or ITEP) during 1950-1955 Kronod collaborated with physicists, among them Isaak Pomeranchuk and Lev Landau who was one of his Ph.D. advisors. For providing theoretical physics with numerical solutions he received the Stalin Prize and an Order of the Red Banner.
He directed the mathematics division at ITEP and taught at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute.
ITEP could surpass the results achieved outside the USSR by far faster machines. Requests for computation were analyzed and sometimes solved by other means. The equipment was maintained and there were almost no hardware malfunctions. A policy said finished programs had to be rewritten if they ran for more than ten minutes.
Kronrod demanded and rewarded accuracy and employed women in ITEP's coding and card punching groups, believing that female computing staff members are more accurate than males. He also thought that in order to think, the male scientists qualified to use the computers needed to be free from operating them. The women did the input and quality assurance side by side with the men, and for each month without an error received a 20% raise in salary.
He served with Leonid Kantorovich and others on a cabinet ministry commission and oversaw the computation of the country's material expeditures to correct price formation for the USSR. Kronrod's student V.D. Belkin further developed this work.
Kronrod had a profound interest in artificial intelligence and is well known for saying, "chess is the Drosophila of artificial intelligence." This quote graces the top of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence "Games & Puzzles" chess home page.[1]
In 1965 ITEP challenged and in 1966-1967 defeated the American chess program Kotok-McCarthy. Kronrod helped to solve the "general recursive search scheme". His participation came at great cost. The physics users at ITEP complained, thinking that the lab was being used for game playing, when the division was writing the Crazy Eights card game and chess hoping to teach a machine to think.
When the Communist Party reprimanded him for cosigning a letter with many mathematicians in defense of Alexander Esenin-Volpin, the physicists were able to oust him from ITEP. He was fired from his professorship, a series of events that ended his career in mathematics.[2]
He supervised lung cancer and pneumonia research at the Gertsen cancer research institute. He spent his fortune developing milil from milk extract for cancer patients, to fill a shortage of anabola developed by his acquaintance Bogdanov in Bulgaria. He tested the medicine on himself. Kronrod nearly lost his research records when a criminal case was brought against him, regaining the records when a relative of the plantiff required milil for treatment.
He is the author of several well known books, including "Nodes and weights of quadrature formulas. Sixteen-place tables" and "Conversations on Programming". A biographer wrote Kronrod gave ideas "away left and right, quite honestly being convinced that the authorship belongs to the one who implements them."
Yevgeniy Landis was among Kronod's students and early collaborators and was one of his biographers.
He was married and had one(?) child.
Kronod saved his own life by asking to be soaked in a tub of very hot water for several hours after a second stroke. He died on 6 October, 1986 of a third stroke.
Notes
- ^ ""Chess"". American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Retrieved 19 December.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Brudno, Michael (May 2000). "Competitions, Controversies, and Computer Chess" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-12-19.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); External link in|author=
References
- E.M. Landis, I.M. Yaglom, Aleksandr Semenovich Kronrod, Russian Math. Surveys 56 (2001), 993–1007.
- E.M. Landis, I.M. Yaglom, Remembering A.S. Kronrod, English translation by Viola Brudno. W. Gautschi (ed.) [written for Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk, English publication Math. Intelligencer (2002), 22-30], available at Stanford University School of Engineering SCCM-00-01 (PostScript). Retrieved on 19 December, 2006