Vladimir Steklov

Who was Vladimir Steklov?

Vladimir Andreevich Steklov was a Soviet/Russian mathematician, mechanician and physicist.

Steklov was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. In 1887, he graduated from the Kharkov University, where he was a student of Aleksandr Lyapunov. In 1889–1906 he worked at the Department of Mechanics of this University. He became a full professor in 1896. During 1893–1905 he also taught theoretical mechanics in the Kharkov Technological Institute. In 1906 he started working at Petersburg University. In 1921 he petitioned for the creation of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics. Upon his death the institute was named after him. The Mathematics Department split from the Institute in 1934. It is now known as Steklov Institute of Mathematics.

Steklov's primary scientific contribution is in the area of orthogonal functional sets. He introduced a class of closed orthogonal sets, developed asymptotic Liouville–Steklov method for orthogonal polynomials, proved theorems on generalized Fourier series, and developed an approximation technique later named Steklov function. He also worked on hydrodynamics and the theory of elasticity.