Lev Pontryagin

Lev Pontryagin
Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin (left)
Born(1908-09-03)3 September 1908
Died3 May 1988(1988-05-03) (aged 79)
Moscow, Soviet Union
NationalitySoviet Union
Known forPontryagin duality
Pontryagin class
Pontryagin cohomology operation
Pontryagin's maximum principle
Andronov–Pontryagin criterion
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Doctoral advisorPavel Alexandrov
Doctoral studentsDmitri 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.