Pyotr Novikov

Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov (1901 to 1975) was a Soviet mathematician known for his work in group theory. Born in Moscow, he studied at Moscow University and worked under Nikolai Luzin until he finished his graduate studies in 1929. He taught at the Moscow Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology, joined the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in 1934, was awarded his doctorate in 1935 and in 1957 became the first head of the Department of Mathematical Logic there. His research addressed combinatorial problems in group theory, including the word problem for groups and the Burnside problem, and in 1955 he proved that there is a finitely presented group whose word problem has no algorithm, a result later credited as the Novikov-Boone theorem. He received the Lenin Prize in 1957, and his son Sergei Novikov also became a mathematician.