Life and Times of Georgy Voronoi

Abstract

Georgy Theodosiyovych Voronoi (1868-1908) is famous for his seminal contributions to number theory,perhaps mostly those involving quadratic forms and Voronoi tessellations. He was born and grew up in the town of Zhuravka in the Ukraine, at the time part of the Russian Empire. Having studied at St. Petersburg University under the supervision of Andrey Markov, in 1894 he became a professor of pure mathematics at the University of Warsaw. In his career he published six large memoirs and six short papers, each of which were so profound and significant that they left a deep trace in modern number theory. Together with Minkowski, he can be considered as the founder of the Geometry of Numbers. In this contribution, a brief sketch will be given of his life, work and legacy.