Andrei Zelevinsky


Andrei Vladlenovich Zelevinsky was a Russian-American mathematician who made important contributions to algebra, combinatorics, and representation theory, among other areas.

Biography

Zelevinsky graduated in 1969 from the Moscow Mathematical School No. 2.
After winning a silver medal as a member of the USSR team at the International Mathematical Olympiad he was admitted without examination to the mathematics department of Moscow State University
where he obtained his PhD in 1978 under the mentorship of Joseph Bernstein,
Alexandre Kirillov and Israel Gelfand.
He worked in the mathematical laboratory of Vladimir Keilis-Borok at the Institute of Earth Science, and at the Council for Cybernetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In the early 1980s, at a great personal risk, he taught at the Jewish Peoples' University, an unofficial organization offering first-class mathematics education to talented students denied admission to Moscow State University's math department.
In 1990–91, Zelevinsky was a visiting professor at Cornell University, and from 1991 until his death was on faculty at Northeastern University, Boston.
With his wife, Galina, he had a son and a daughter; he also had several grandchildren.

Research

Zelevinsky's most notable achievement is the discovery of cluster algebras.
His other contributions include: