Hlushkov, Viktor

Hlushkov, Viktor [Глушков, Віктор; Hluškov], b 24 August 1923 in Rostov-na-Donu, RSFSR, d 30 January 1982 in Moscow. Mathematician, specialist in cybernetics, computer science, and control theory; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (AN URSR) from 1961 and of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1964. In 1957 he was appointed director of the Computing Center of the AN URSR, which in 1962 was reorganized into the Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1962 he became vice-president of the AN URSR. He did seminal work in the fields of modern algebra, automata theory, digital computers, the application of cybernetics to economics, automatic control systems, and artificial intelligence. He solved the generalized 5th Gilbert Theorem. His influence on the development of computer sciences, computer manufacturing, and the automatization of production in the Soviet Union was very important. Computer systems such as Dnepr and Mir were designed and constructed under his supervision. He is the author of a general theory of automata that has been utilized widely in computer and automatic-machine construction. Hlushkov was first to propose a radically new system of computer-assisted economic planning; many of his methods were used in the Soviet bloc. He served as editor in chief of Entsyklopediia kibernetyky (Encyclopedia of Cybernetics, 2 vols, 1973), which was published in Ukrainian and Russian.

Lubomyr Onyshkevych

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]