Leonid Kantorovich

For more information on Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich, visit Britannica.com.

(1912 - 1986), Soviet mathematician and economist; founder of the theory of optimal planning and of linear programming.

Kantorovich showed early promise as a mathematical scientist, entering Leningrad University at the age of fourteen and graduating at eighteen. There he did research in set theory and soon met other great Soviet mathematicians, among them Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov. By 1934 Kantorovich was made a full professor. After the war, he played an important role in the new Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences, moving to Novosibirsk in 1960.

During the 1930s Kantorovich contributed to the developing theory of partially ordered functional spaces. In 1938 he began his applied work in economics when he was asked by the Laboratory of the Plywood Trust to solve the problem of distributing raw materials to maximize equipment productivity under quantitative restrictions. This problem proved to be mathematically similar to that of optimizing a sown area or the distribution of transportation flows. Kantorovich solved this by using a kind of functional analysis he called the "method of resolving multipliers." By 1939 he had published a small book laying out the main ideas and algorithms of linear programming, later advanced independently by Tjalling Koopmans, George Dantzig, and others. Subsequently, Kantorovich combined linear programming with the idea of dynamic programming to advance methods for calculating wholesale prices and transportation tariffs, a norm for the effectiveness of capital investments and depreciation allowances, and other payments. This work, generalized to planning problems on the industrial, regional, or national level, led to his receiving the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1975, the only Soviet economist ever so honored. A full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1960, Kantorovich received the Lenin Prize and many other honors in Russia and abroad.

Bibliography

Campbell, Robert W. (1961). "Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov: Stoimost versus Reality." Slavic Review 20(3): 402 - 18.

Kantorovich, Leonid V. (1965). The Best Use of Economic Resources. Oxford: Pergamon.

—MARTIN C. SPECHLER

Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich
Born	19 January 1912(1912-01-19) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	7 April 1986 (aged 74) Moscow, Russia, USSR
Nationality	Soviet Russia
Fields	Mathematics
Alma mater	Leningrad State University
Known for	Linear programming Kantorovich theorem normed vector lattice (Kantorovich space) Kantorovich metric approximation theory iterative methods functional analysis numerical analysis scientific computing
Notable awards	Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (1975)

Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich (Russian: Леонид Витальевич Канторович) (19 January 1912, Saint Petersburg – 7 April 1986, Moscow) was a Soviet/Russian mathematician and economist, known for his theory and development of techniques for the optimal allocation of resources. He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1975 and the only winner of this prize from the USSR.

Kantorovich worked for the Soviet government. He was given the task of optimizing production in a plywood industry. He came up (1939) with the mathematical technique now known as linear programming, some years before it was reinvented and much advanced by George Dantzig. He authored several books including The Mathematical Method of Production Planning and Organization and The Best Uses of Economic Resources.

During the Siege of Leningrad, Kantorovich was in charge of safety on the Road of Life. He calculated the optimal distance between cars on ice, depending on thickness of ice and temperature of the air. In December 1941 and January 1942, Kantorovich personally walked between cars on ice of the Lake Ladoga to ensure that cars do not sink on the Road of Life. However many cars with food for survivors of the siege were destroyed by the Nazi air-bombings.

For his feat and courage Kantorovich was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, and was decorated with the medal For Defence of Leningrad.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which he shared with Tjalling Koopmans, was given "for their contributions to the theory of optimal allocation of resources."

See also

• List of economists

References

• V. Makarov (1987). "Kantorovich, Leonid Vitaliyevich" The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 14-15.
• L.V. Kantorovich (1939). "Mathematical Methods of Organizing and Planning Production" Management Science, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Jul., 1960), pp. 366-422.
• Klaus Hagendorf (2008). Spreadsheet presenting all examples of Kantorovich, 1939 with the OpenOffice.org Calc Solver as well as the lp_solver.

External links

• Leonid Kantorovich (with a small photo)
• contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources.
• koopmans lecture - pdf
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Leonid Kantorovich", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Kantorovich.html . (With additional photos.)
• Leonid Kantorovich at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• (Russian)Biography on the homepage of Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, in Russian
• (Russian)mmonline.ru On Leonid Kantorovich and linear programming (in Russian), by Anatoly Vershik
• IDEAS/RePEc
• The World Line of Kantorovich - by S.S. Kutateladze
• Kantorovich's Phenomenon - by S.S. Kutateladze

v • d • e Nobel Memorial Laureates in Economics Ragnar Frisch / Jan Tinbergen (1969) · Paul Samuelson (1970) · Simon Kuznets (1971) · John Hicks / Kenneth Arrow (1972) · Wassily Leontief (1973) · Gunnar Myrdal / Friedrich Hayek (1974) · Leonid Kantorovich / Tjalling Koopmans (1975) Complete roster · 1969–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

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