Mark Krein

Mark Grigorievich Krein (; ; 3 April 1907 – 17 October 1989) was a Soviet mathematician, one of the major figures of the Soviet school of functional analysis. He is known for works in operator theory (in close connection with concrete problems coming from mathematical physics), the problem of moments, classical analysis and representation theory.

Early life and career He was born in Kiev, in the Russian Empire, leaving home at age 17 to go to Odessa. He had a difficult academic career, not completing his first degree and constantly being troubled by antisemitic discrimination. His supervisor was Nikolai Chebotaryov.

He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1982 (jointly with Hassler Whitney), but was not allowed to attend the ceremony.

David Milman, Mark Naimark, Israel Gohberg, Vadym Adamyan, Mikhail Livsic and other known mathematicians were his students.

He died in Odessa.

Legacy On 14 January 2008, the memorial plaque of Mark Krein was unveiled on the main administration building of Odesa University in Ukraine.