Translated material
Remain yourself
In Moscow, a conference was held dedicated to the 100th anniversary of I.M. Gelfand
"In the chaos situation, you have to remain himself." Such advice was given to me by Yuri Manin, who came, like many other leading mathematicians in the world, to the anniversary conference of his teacher and colleagues of Israel Moiseevich Gelfand. The scientific forum was held from July 22 to 24, 2013 in the building of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and on July 25 ended with performances by young scientists in the building of the ICNMO and an independent Moscow University [1].
On the sidelines of mathematics, they not only remembered Gelfand and discussed the actual mathematical tasks, but also talked about the declared reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And Manin's advice was, it seems to me, the most useful guide to action.
“Do you know what Gelfand words are closest to me?” Said Yuri Ivanovich and read out a fragment from the 1989 Kyotsky lecture. The text of the report was in his hands. “Globalization of the tasks of mankind requires an adequate language (or rather adequate languages), inherent, understandable and applicable in different social structures. Therefore, universal values come to the fore in an adequate language , ”Israel Moiseevich said then. - I understand the huge difficulty of this activity in global problems. But I think I know a few important words in this language. These are such words or concepts as “conscience”, “absolute value of human life”, “denial of aggressiveness as a means of solving global problems”. Without such an adequate language, we will not pull out all the problems that are in modern society ” [2].
What quality of Gelfand Yuri Ivanovich misses the most? “He was a talented and very diverse person, so you will not limit yourself in one quality. But I do not know anyone else who would utter these words (as amended above) as the main ones. ”
Any international conference could be envied by the composition of the conference, and all these scientists carried and carry a particle of Gelfand's heritage: Joseph Bernstein (Tel Aviv University), Yuri Manin (Max Planck Institute in Bonn and Mian), Igor Krichever (Columbian University and IPPI), Vladimir Zakharov (Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian and Fian Arizona University), Dmitry Fuchs (University of California in Davis), David David (Jerusalem University), Ludwig Faddeev (in addition to the Eyler Institute), Anatoly Vershik (in addition), Grigory Olshansky (IPPI), Alexander Kirillov (IPPI and the University of Pennsylvania) and others. Four winners of the Fields Prize came to the conference: Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergey Novikov, Andrey Okunkov (Columbia University and IPPI), Stanislav Smirnov (University of Geneva and St. Petersburg State University) and Maxim Kontsevich (Institute of Higher Research and IPPI).
“The conference surpassed, according to my sensations, even the most daring expectations. I was aware of this year. And there were different periods, there were more successful or less successful, ”Sergey Izrailevich Gelfand said in a commentary. - And as always, the whole organization is a problem. I got used to how this is done in the West, and when I met with things that no longer climb into any gates by no western standards, I began to get nervous. But what is happening is absolutely wonderful! ” He with irony noted that some organizing pro -scabs still remained. So, in the entire presidential hall there are no electric sockets in pran, every chair has a microphone, and for some reason there is no sockets. Therefore, for the projector and computers, I had to pull an extension cord from another room.
“ I was afraid that few people would come. Because summer and school in Dubna, but the hall was full, ”said Sergey Gelfand. - Very good reports sounded. It’s very cool that scientists have come who talk about modern mathematics. ” He emphasized that the organizers tried to choose those reports that I.M. It would be interesting to listen to your seminar, without taking into account what status or titles of one or another scientist. Sergei Gelfand also noted that at the evening of memoirs about I.M., held on the first day of the conference, "everything was very good and very sustained, no one pulled a blanket over himself, no one used his performance to remind his beloved about himself."
What quality of his father seems to him the most important? “The father was both an outstanding mathematician and a biologist and thought about common things a lot and meaningfully, but in a sense he was the main quality in the fact that he was a born teacher,” said Sergey Israilevich.
How would father react to the announced reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, would act as actively in the press as his grandson Mikhail Gelfand? “Israel Moiseevich is a man of another generation. The time of his youth and the formation of public temperament was in the 30s , ”said Sergey Gelfand. -And from my point of view, although he understood with his mind that something was wrong, and with Brezhnev it was already possible to behave differently, and when he lived in the United States, one could act in a completely different way, but at times I felt that the perception of the surrounding world had had a strong influence, which was formed in the 30s, when the world around was ugly. Therefore, your question if he would fight with such a reform of the Academy of Sciences, in fact, is divided into two questions: "How would he react to this?" And “what would he do about this?”
How would he react to this? “Father was not chosen for a long time to the Academy of Sciences, but chose when he already lived in America. I know the people who were chosen to the Academy of Sciences, they somehow changed, began to consider themselves academicians. The entry into the Russian Academy of Sciences did not change him, especially since before that he became a member of many academies of the world. Therefore, I do not think that he would have some strong feelings about the Academy of Sciences, he was somehow not particularly connected with her. He worked with institutes, with the institution of applied mathematics - it was a really important piece of his life. ”
What would he do about this? “Even if the father believed that something should be done, I don’t think that he would be in the forefront of those who sign letters [protest]. He did not have this type of public temperament. He preferred to act at a personal level, ” said Sergey Israilevich. He also said that in the journal of the American mathematical society, the memories of friends and colleagues about his father were published [3, 4].
In his commentary, Stanislav Smirnov repeated the words of one of his colleagues that "young mathematicians - as the second derivative of Gelfand, people who had a strong influence had a strong influence on us." “He was such a bright and memorable figure in science that even his reflection is greatly noticeable. I met him several times when he had already left, went to his seminars in the USA and Paris. [It is clear that this was no longer like the seminars in Russia], but still I felt that it was an amazing person. "
In turn, the laureate of the 2012 Mathematical Society of the 2012 Moscow Mathematical Society, Alexander Gayfulin (Mian and Ippi RAS) said that he had not intersected with I.M. Gelfand is due to his age. “However, I think that as mathematics it greatly formed that I read his articles. Perhaps his article (about the combinatorial classes of Pontryagin) was one of the first serious articles that I read. And this had a very great influence on me. ”
“With I.M. I had limited interaction. I saw him only once in my life, but I grew up, I have always been and continue to be under the enormous influence of the people who in turn studied with him. This is San Sanych Kirillov and Grigory Olshansky ... ” , Andrei Okunkov said with a smile.
What is the most surprising in Gelfand's works? “ It is amazing me how he managed to do all this. At the evening of memoirs, they said that he had time to solve tasks with six -year -olds, on the one hand, on the other hand, all this medicine, and biology and mathematics, ” Okunkov remarked.
"THEM. Gelfand always collected, focused around him a huge number of talented people, not only mathematicians, but also biologists, and applied mathematicians. Few people recall that I.M. He worked for atomic and space projects and was one of the leaders in them. The institute of the Keldysh was made exactly under this, and the department of applied mathematics, which was created in the glass, then became the basis for creating the IPM RAS. " This is rarely remembered. This department, created in Steklovka, gave rise to a large number of talented scientists, who later later became known and never in public opinion were associated with the atomic and space project. But it was like that! ”, - recalled Alexander Kuleshov, director of IPPI RAS - institute, one of the organizers of the conference.
“I have been connected with him all my life. I am not his student, but I was at his seminar many times , ”Academician Ludwig Faddeev said with a smile. - I was young and impudent and I reacted quite calmly when he began to attack me, I fought back. Therefore, he was a little afraid of me. In addition, he gave me one task and said: "Two weeks." He needed to write one chapter for the book. The task was completely new to me, I learned science, solved the problem, brought him. He said that this is difficult for the book, and it did not go there. After that, I published this article and now it is very famous. ”
What quality is most clearly characterized by I.M. Gelfand? “He understood mathematics as a universal science. He understood her internal ties and knew how to convey them to the disciples, ” Faddeev emphasized.
In the conclusion of the second day of the conference, Anatoly Versik noted that the scientific forum was held with absolute passivity, if not more tough, academic upper reaches. MSU pulled for a long time, and now he would organize his “” conference. “The first -class scientific to become this conference contrasts with how academic and university administrators reacted to this anniversary,” he noted, bringing allegory from the analysis of the Turnip fairy tale in kindergarten, in which the little boy asked: “Why did the granddaughter’s mother not pull the turnip? What did they do? ”
Links:
1. The conference website for the 100th anniversary of I.M. Gelfand. http://gelfand100.iitp.ru/home
2. I.M. Gelfand. Two archetypes in the psychology of mankind. Lectures at the award of the Kyoto Award. 1989. Http://yadi.sk/d/v64_cag774vhl
3. Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, Part I. Ed. By vladimir retain // Notices of the AMS. Volume 60, Number 1. January 2013. P. 24-49. www.ams.org/notices/201301/rnoti-p24.pdf
4. Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, Part II. Ed. By vladimir retain // Notices of the AMS. Volume 60, Number 2. February 2013. P. 162-171. www.ams.org/notices/20130/rnoti-p162.pdf