Olga Arsenievna Oleinik

Olga Arsenievna Oleinik (also as Oleĭnik) HFRSE (2 July 1925 – 13 October 2001) was a Soviet mathematician who conducted pioneering work on the theory of partial differential equations, the theory of strongly inhomogeneous elastic media, and the mathematical theory of boundary layers. She was a student of Ivan Petrovsky. She studied and worked at the Moscow State University.

She received many prizes for her remarkable contributions: the Chebotarev Prize in 1952; the State Prize 1988; the Petrowsky Prize in 1995; and the Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995. Also she was member of several foreign academies of sciences, and earned several honorary degrees.

Life

On 2 May 1985 Olga Oleinik was awarded the laurea honoris causa by the Sapienza University of Rome, jointly with Fritz John.

Work

Research activity She authored more than 370 mathematical publications and 8 monographs, as the sole author or in collaboration with others: her work covers algebraic geometry, the theory of partial differential equations where her work enlightened various aspects, elasticity theory and boundary layers theory.

Teaching activity She was a very active teacher, advising the thesis of 57 "candidates".

Selected publications of Olga Oleinik . An important paper where the author describes generalized solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations as BV functions. . An important paper where the author constructs a weak solution in BV for a nonlinear partial differential equation with the method of vanishing viscosity. . An important paper in the theory of the Stefan problem: generalizing earlier work of her doctoral student S. L. Kamenomostskaya, the author proves the existence of a generalized solution for the multi dimensional model. (reviews of the Russian edition). . . . . . .