(19.01.1912 г. — 07.04.1986 г.)

An outstanding mathematician and economist, academician of the USSR Academy of Science(1964), the  winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1975 “for contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources”. A pioneer and one of the founders of linear programming. Since 1976, he worked in VNIISI (now the Institute for System Analysis, RAS).

Kantorovich is the representative of  St. Petersburg mathematical school of Chebyshev, the  student of  G.M. Fikhtengolts and V.I.Smirnov. In 1926 at the age of fourteen he entered the University of Leningrad. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics (1930), and  in 1934 became the professor of this University and  in 1935 he was awarded the Doctor  degree  in Physical and Mathematical Sciences without defending a thesis. In 1938, Kantorovich consulted the plywood Trust  on the effective use of machines, then headed the department of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University. 

In 1949 he became the winner of the Stalin Prize "for his work on functional analysis”. In 1958 was elected as corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences (Economics and Statistics) and in 1964 became an  academician. He was among the scientists of the first generation of the Siberian Branch of the USSR. For the development of linear programming method and economic models he was awarded the Lenin Prize (1965) together with Academician V.S.Nemchinov and Professor Novozhilov. 

In 1975 he got Nobel Prize in Economics (jointly with T. Koopmans "for their contribution to the theory of optimum allocation of resources"). Since 1976 he worked at the Institute for System Analysis. His major works are devoted to the problems of  functional analysis, programming, computational mathematics and economics. A new direction in applied mathematics - linear programming was created by him. Kantorovich is one of the founders of the theory of optimal planning and management of the economy, the theory of optimal resource utilization. 

He died in Moscow on April 7, 1986, buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.