Leonid Khachiyan

Leonid Khachiyan
Born
Leonid Genrikhovich Khachiyan

(1952-05-03)May 3, 1952
Leningrad, Soviet Union
DiedApril 29, 2005(2005-04-29) (aged 52)
CitizenshipSoviet Union, United States
Spouse
Olga Pischikova Reynberg
(m. 1985)
Children2, including Anna
AwardsFulkerson Prize (1982)
Scientific career
InstitutionsComputer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
Rutgers University

Leonid Genrikhovich Khachiyan (/kɑːən/; Russian: Леони́д Ге́нрихович Хачия́н; May 3, 1952  April 29, 2005) was a Soviet and American mathematician and computer scientist.

He was most famous for his ellipsoid algorithm (1979) for linear programming, which was the first such algorithm known to have a polynomial running time. Even though this algorithm was shown to be impractical, it has inspired other randomized algorithms for convex programming and is considered a significant theoretical breakthrough.