Nikolay Bogolyubov was born on August 21, 1909 in the city of Nizhniy Novgorod. His father was a theology professor, and mother taught music. In 1921 the family moved to Kiev. After spending seven years in school, Nikolay started learning mathematics and physics himself, and, being a 14-year-old boy, participated in seminars of the mathematical physics department of Kiev University. In 1924, at the age of 15, Nikolay Bogolyubov wrote his first scientific work, and the following year gifted young man was allowed to prepare a PhD dissertation, which he defended in 1929, thus becoming a 20-year-old philosophy doctor in mathematics.

In 1929 Nikolay Bogolyubov was employed as a research fellow of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1934 the mathematician started reading lectures in Kiev University, eaning professorship in 1936. Since 1948 Nikolay frequented Moscow, where headed thery department in the Institute of Chemical Physics of Soviet Academy of Sciences. Moreover, the scientist also worked at the Institute of Mathematics and Moscow State University, where founded the department of quantum statistics and field theory. Bogolyubov headed this department until his last days. Within 1950-1953, the mathematician was also employed in a back-room – the classified research institution in Sarov – and worked on defense.

When Joint Institute of Nuclear Research was founded in Dubna in 1956, Nikolay Bogolyubov actively participated in its life: he opened and headed the laboratory of theoretical physics. In 1965 the mathematician headed JINR and remained its head since 1988. In 1966 Nikolay Bogolyubov became a director of his own creation – the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Kiev. Between 1983 and 1989, the scientist also headed the Institute of Mathematics in Moscow.

Main fields of Nikolay Bogolyubov’s research are mathematics and mechanics: variation calculus, approximate methods of mathematical analysis, differential equations, equations of mathematical physics, asymptotic methods of nonlinear mechanics and theory of dynamic systems. First publications of the scientists date back to 1924-1928 and cover issues of variation calculus and almost periodic function. In the following years, Bogolyubov and his colleagues developed new methods of nonlinear mechanics and general theory of dynamic systems. While working on problems of statistical mechanics, Nikolay Bogolyubov developed a method for yielding quantum equations from mechanics of a molecule system. In 1946 Bogolyubov was the first to formulate the microscopic theory of superfluidity, taking model of weakly imperfect Bose gas as a basis. Ten years later, the scientist created the microscopic theory of superconductivity, proceeding from a quantum-mechanical model of an electron gas, which interacted with ionic lattice of a metal.

In fifties, Bogolyubov turned to quantum theory of field. The scientist created the first version of axiomatic construction of scattering matrix, based upon original causality condition. Bogolyubov suggested a mathematically correct variant of renormalization theory and developed a technique for improving quantum field solutions. Nikolay Bogolyubov is the author of method for systems with spontaneously broken symmetry. In sixties, the scientist got interested with symmetry and dynamics of quark model of adorns and introduced new quantum number “colour” in 1965.

Nikolay Bogolyubov is the founder on Soviet scientific schools in nonlinear mechanics, statistical physics and quantum field theory. The eminent mathematician died in 1992.

Source: Mathnet.ru

Kizilova Anna