Lev Pontryagin | |
|---|---|
 Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin (left) | |
| Born | 3 September 1908 |
| Died | 3 May 1988 (aged 79) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Soviet Union |
| Known for | Pontryagin duality Pontryagin class Pontryagin cohomology operation Pontryagin's maximum principle Andronov–Pontryagin criterion |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Doctoral advisor | Pavel Alexandrov |
| Doctoral students | Dmitri Anosov Vladimir Boltyansky Revaz Gamkrelidze Mikhail Postnikov Mikhail Zelikin |
Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin (Russian: Лев Семёнович Понтрягин, also written Pontriagin or Pontrjagin, first name sometimes anglicized as Leon) (3 September 1908 – 3 May 1988) was a Soviet mathematician. Completely blind from the age of 14, he made major discoveries in a number of fields of mathematics, including algebraic topology, differential topology and optimal control.