Boris Vasil'evich Numerov

Boris Vasil'evich Numerov (January 29, 1891—September 13, 1941) was a Russian astronomer, land-surveyor and geophysicist. Born in Lyuban, he created various astronomic and mineralogical instruments, as well as for various algorithms and methods that bear his name. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, observer at Pulkovo from 1913-1915, astronomer at the observatory of the University of Leningrad from 1915 to 1925, and director of the Central Observatory of Geophysics (1926-7), and Professor at the University of Leningrad (1924-1937). [gersoo.free.fr/Download/docs/numerov.pdf]

In 1938, Numerov visited Wallace Eckert’s lab to learn how punched card equipment might be applied to "stellar research" in his own lab at St. Petersburg University. [ [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/ Computing at Columbia Timeline ] ]

In 1941, he was arrested and executed during the Stalinist purges. He had been accused of being a spy in the pay of Germany. The basis of this accusation rested on the fact that German astronomers had named an asteroid after him. [gersoo.free.fr/Download/docs/numerov.pdf] In 1957, his memory was rehabilitated. [ [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/ Computing at Columbia Timeline ] ]

Numerov crater on the Moon was named after him. Asteroid 1206 Numerowia is also named after him.

Notes

External links

* Gérard Sookahet, "La Méthode de Numerov pour Résoudre les Equations Différentielles du 2nd Ordre", [http://gersoo.free.fr/Download/docs/numerov.pdf PDF]