Leonid Lakhtin

Leonid Lakhtin
Леонид Кузьмич Лахтин
Rector of Moscow University
In office August 1904 – August 1905
Preceded by	Alexander Tikhomirov
Succeeded by	Sergei Trubetskoy
Personal details
Born	14 (26) April 1863 Bogoslovskoye, Chern Uyezd, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	14 July 1927 Moscow, Soviet Union
Education	Moscow University (1885)
Occupation	Mathematician

Leonid Kuzmich Lakhtin (Леонид Кузьмич Лахтин; 14 [O.S. 26] April 1863 – 14 July 1927) was a Russian and Soviet mathematician known for his work on the solution of algebraic equations of higher degrees and, in his later years, on mathematical statistics. He served as rector of Moscow University from 1904 to 1905 and as dean of its Faculty of Physics and Mathematics from 1912 to 1918.

Early life and education

Lakhtin was born on 14 (26) April 1863 in the village of Bogoslovskoye, Chern Uyezd, Tula Governorate, on his father's estate, into a family of hereditary honorary citizens of Russia. He received his secondary education at the Third Moscow Gymnasium and in 1881 entered the physics and mathematics faculty of Moscow University, graduating in 1885, after which he remained at the university to prepare for a professorship in pure mathematics.

Academic career

Lakhtin was a student and close friend of the mathematician Nikolai Bugaev. In 1892 he became a privatdozent at the University of Dorpat (Yuriev), and the following year defended his master's dissertation there, going on to teach courses including differential and integral calculus and analytic geometry. In 1896 he returned to Moscow University, initially as an extraordinary professor and from 1902 as an ordinary professor, combining his university post with teaching at the Imperial Moscow Technical School and the Moscow Land Surveying Institute. In 1897 he defended his doctoral dissertation, "Differential Resolvents of Algebraic Equations of Higher Degree," earning a doctorate in pure mathematics.

His mathematical research was devoted principally to two areas: the solution of algebraic equations of higher degree by means of special functions dependent on the integrals of differential equations (differential resolvents of the corresponding algebraic equations), and, in his later years, mathematical statistics.

Rector of Moscow University

In 1903, Lakhtin became assistant rector of Moscow University, and in August 1904 he was appointed rector for a term of four years. Following the revolutionary events of 1905, the "Provisional Rules on the Administration of Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Public Education" came into force in August of that year, granting universities the right to elect their own rectors freely; Lakhtin was consequently obliged to resign, yielding his post to the newly elected professor Sergei Trubetskoy.

Later career

After leaving the rectorship, Lakhtin continued to teach at Moscow University's Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, serving as its dean from 1912 to 1918. From 1910 to 1918 he was also director of a Moscow Realschule. He was awarded the title of Honoured Professor in 1914.

Lakhtin continued teaching after the revolution and headed a group of statisticians at Moscow University's Institute of Mathematics, lecturing on subjects including introduction to analysis, integral calculus, probability theory, differential calculus and the calculus of finite differences. The physicist V. D. Zyornov recalled that Lakhtin explained mathematics so clearly that no further independent study was needed to understand it. Among his students was the religious philosopher Pavel Florensky.

Death

Lakhtin died in Moscow on 14 July 1927.

References

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