Vorony, Heorhii

Vorony, Heorhii [Вороний, Георгій; Voronyj, Heorhij; also Yurii], b 28 April 1868 in Zhuravka, Pyriatyn county, Poltava gubernia, d 20 November 1908 in Warsaw. Mathematician; corresponding member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1907; father of Yurii Vorony. A graduate of Saint Petersburg University, he taught at the University of Warsaw from 1894. His fundamental works are devoted to the theory of numbers. His first major results were obtained in the theory of algebraic numbers, particularly in the theory of irrationalities of the third degree, where he made an exhaustive analysis of the problem concerning the basis of a cubic field and developed the necessary computational methods for determining the decomposition of various classes of real numbers. He also developed algorithms which provide a generalization of continuous fractions. In 1894–1908 he made significant contributions to the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms and the analytic theory of numbers. Together with H. Minkowski, Vorony is regarded as the founder of the geometric theory of numbers. Many of Vorony’s ideas and his work were developed further by some members of Dmytro Grave’s Kyiv school of algebra, such as B. Delone. Most of Vorony’s work was not published during his lifetime and appeared only in 1952–3 in the three-volume complete collection of his writings. It is only recently that he has received the recognition he deserves.

Wolodymyr Petryshyn

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]