Revaz Gamkrelidze


Revaz Valerianovic Gamkrelidze was a Soviet and Georgian mathematician known for his work in optimal control theory and related fields. He was a member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Background

After secondary school, Gamkrelidze attended Tbilisi State University. In his sophomore year, he went to Moscow to study at the mechanics and mathematics faculty of Moscow State University where he became a student of Pontryagin.
Gamkrelidze died on May 5, 2025, at the age of 98. He was the brother of the linguist Tamaz Gamkrelidze.

Work

At Moscow State University, he initially worked in the fields of algebraic geometry and topology, and derived what is now known as Gamkrelidze's formula. In 1954 he began his work on optimal control. He wrote Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes with Pontryagin, Boltyanskii and Mishchenko. This work was awarded the State Lenin Prize for Science and Technology in 1962. Gamkrelidze was the founding editor of Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences.

Books