Volodymyr Levytsky


Quick Info

Born
31 December 1872
Ternopil, Galicia (now Ukraine)
Died
13 August 1956
Lviv, Ukraine

Summary
Volodymyr Levytsky was a Ukrainian mathematician who studied functions of a complex variable.

Biography

Volodymyr Levytsky attended the University of Lemberg in what is now called Lviv, receiving his doctorate in 1901. After this he taught both mathematics and physics at high schools. At that time Lviv was part of the Austrian Empire and was known as Lemberg.

The University of Lemberg, which Levytsky studied at, was an ancient educational establishment which was founded in 1784. However problems arose between the Polish and Ukrainian populations after World War I. Ukrainian students were not permitted to enrol at the University in 1919 and the following year Ukrainian lecturers were banned from the University, only Polish citizens being allowed as lecturers.

The Ukrainian students who could no longer enrol at Lemberg University set up their own University, the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University, in July 1921. Levytsky taught mathematics at this new university from its foundation. The Underground Ukrainian University was financed by private donations and was able to survive for a few years but, when it was denied official recognition, it was forced to close in 1925.

Levytsky headed the mathematics-physics section of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv. He served for two terms as the President of the Society from 1931 to 1935 and also was editor of the Journal of the Society. From 1940, until his death in 1956, Levytsky taught at the Lviv Pedagogical Institute.

Levytsky wrote the first mathematical paper in Ukrainian and was the editor of the first Ukrainian mathematical journal. Most of his publications were in the area of functions of a complex variable. However he was also very active in applications of mathematics to theoretical physics.

He is known for his work on Ukrainian mathematical, physical and chemical terminology, which was one of the main areas of study of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv. Levytsky also wrote important historical works on mathematics at the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University and mathematics at the Shevchenko Scientific Society.


References (show)

  1. M F Kravchuk, Letters to V I Levitskii (1926-1931) (Russian) With commentaries by P K Khobzei, Ocherki Istor. Estestvoznan. Tekhn. No. 38 (1990), 103-118.

Additional Resources (show)

Other websites about Volodymyr Levytsky:

  1. zbMATH entry

Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update December 1997