by Yevgeni SIROTININ, Dr. Sc. (Phys. & Math.), D. V. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University Sergei Sobolev graduated in 1929 from what was then called Leningrad University. He got a job at the Theoretical Studies Department of the Institute of Seismology of the USSR Academy of Sciences where he worked under the guidance of a prominent Russian mathematician Prof. Vladimir Smirnov (Academician since 1943). He carried out a series of remarkable studies and published more than 40 scientific articles. From 1932 Dr. Sobolev was on the staff of the Institute of Mathematics (from 1934- Institute of Mathematics named after V Steklov) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Leningrad). In 1933 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy. After the Institute was moved to Moscow in 1934, he was appointed head of the Department of Differential and Pages. 76 Functional Equations and Mathematical Physics. In 1935 he became professor of the Chair of Differential Equations of Moscow State University while continuing to lecture at his alma mater. While continuing his intense scholarly activities, Prof. Sobolev passed on from dynamic problems of the theory of elasticity to statical problems: he focused on what are called border problems for elliptical equations of higher orders using direct methods of variation calculations. For polyharmonic equation the scholar applied new formulations of the prime numbers of the Dirichlet's theorem (German mathematician and foreign Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) in a range containing a multitude of different dimensions. This brought the scientist to a discovery of exceptional importance - the formulation of Sobolev's theorems. And in 1939 he was elected full Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1939 to 1941 Prof. Sobolev held the post of deputy director of the Mathematics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1941 he became its director. In the difficult ... Read more