Naum Yakovlevich Vilenkin
Naum Yakovlevich Vilenkin was a Soviet mathematician, an expert in representation theory, the theory of special functions, functional analysis, and combinatorics. He is best known as the author of many books in recreational mathematics aimed at middle and high school students.
Biography
Vilenkin studied at the Moscow State University where he was a student of A.G. Kurosh. He received his degree of doktor nauk in physics and mathematics in 1950; and was awarded the Ushinsky prize for his school mathematics textbooks in 1976.
In 1975−1990 he assisted Lyudmila Georgievna Peterson in the development of a preschool and school curriculum for teaching mathematics.
Books
Combinatorics by N.Ia. Vilenkin, A. Shenitzer, and S. Shenitzer Representation Theory and Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis II: Homogeneous Spaces, Representations, and Special Functions by A. U. Klimyk, V. F. Molchanov, N. Ya. Vilenkin, and A. A. Kirillov Representation of Lie Groups and Special Functions: Recent Advances by N. Ja, Vilenkin and A. U. Klimyk Representation of Lie Groups and Special Functions Volume 1: Simplest Lie Groups, Special Functions and Integral Transforms by N.Ia. Vilenkin and A. U. Klimyk Generalized Functions. Volume 5. Integral geometry and representation theory by I. M. Gel'fand, M. I. Graev, N. Ya. Vilenkin, and E. Saletan Direct decompositions of topological groups, I, II by N. Ia. Vilenkin
In Search of Infinity by N. Ya. Vilenkin Combinatorial mathematics for recreation by N. Ia. Vilenkin Stories About Sets by N. Ia. Vilenkin Successive approximation, by N. Ya. Vilenkin