Mikhail Kravchuk

Who was Mikhail Kravchuk?

Mykhailo Pylypovych Kravchuk, also Krawtchouk, was a Soviet Ukrainian mathematician who, despite his early death, was the author of around 180 articles on mathematics.

He primarily wrote papers on differential equations and integral equations, studying both their theory and applications. His two-volume monograph on the solution of linear differential and integral equations by the method of moments was translated c. 1938–1942 by John Vincent Atanasoff who found this work useful in his computer-project.

Kravchuk held a mathematics chair at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. His course listeners included Sergey Korolev, Arkhip Lyulka, and Vladimir Chelomei, future leading rocket and jet engine designers. Kravchuk was arrested by the Soviet secret police on February 23, 1938 on political and spying charges. He was sentenced to 20 years of prison in September 1938. Kravchuk died in a Gulag camp in the Kolyma region on March 9, 1942.

He was restored as a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1992. He is the eponym of the Kravchuk polynomials and Kravchuk matrix.