1906-1968

Russian Mathematician

In 1929 and 1934 Aleksandr Gelfond published papers on his inquiries into transcendental numbers, or numbers that are not the solution to an algebraic equation with rational coefficients. He was specifically concerned with Hilbert's seventh problem, which revolved around the assumption that a^b is transcendental if a is any algebraic number other than 0 or 1 and b is any irrational algebraic number. Using linear forms of exponential functions, he solved the problem and established what became known as Gelfond's theorem.

Gelfond was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia, which would later become Leningrad, U.S.S.R. His father, a physician with an interest in philosophy, was an acquaintance of Lenin, who in 1917 became leader of the new Communist state. In 1924, the year Lenin died, Gelfond entered Moscow University, where he completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics three years later. He performed his...