The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in partnership with Steklov Mathematical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has begun developing a new media project ‘VR-Museum of Andrey Kolmogorov’. The museum will be opened at Skoltech on the 120th anniversary of the great mathematician — on April 25, 2023.
The museum will combine cutting-edge digital technology and modern museum standards. The scientific supervisors of the project are the Kolmogorov’s student, a Chief Research Scientist at Steklov Mathematical Institute, a RAS academician Albert Shiryaev, the Fields Medalist (2006), Skoltech professor Andrey Okounkov, and Skoltech vice-president for academic cooperation, mathematician Grigory Kabatiansky.
‘Andrey Kolmogorov was, on the one hand, one of the greatest scientists in the history of Russian science, and on the other hand, one of the greatest mathematicians of his time’, says Vladimir Tikhomirov, a student of Kolmogorov, an honorary professor at Lomonosov MSU. – How to explain it? How can this be made clear to someone who had nothing to do with our science? He was a man of absolutely immense scientific interests and a man who contributed enormously not only to mathematics, but also to the natural sciences and even to many of the humanities. He was a man of an incredible breadth of talent, people like that are rare. To prove my point, it should be mentioned that Andrey Kolmogorov was awarded so many medals and was a member of so many academies that he can be compared in this way in Russian science only to [Ivan] Pavlov and [Pyotr] Kapitsa.
The Kolmogorov Museum will be mostly digital. Its key component will be a VR-tour through the house where Andrey Kolmogorov and Pavel Alexandrov lived. The one they bought together and called the ‘Goose-Dog House’. Visitors of the museum will be able to see the conditions under which the scientific works that determined the further development of mathematics were created. The VR-tour guide will be a student of Andrey Kolmogorov Albert Shiryaev.
‘Andrey Kolmogorov is one of those few scientists whose influence has been and will continue to be felt for many hundreds of years. He was a mathematician who understood mathematics as a whole, treating it as a holistic science. For him it was the language of the book of nature’, says Alexander Kuleshov, President of Skoltech, a RAS academician. — People will undoubtedly remember him as a great scientist for thousands of years.
In addition to the VR-tour, the museum will include video interviews with prominent mathematicians (students, colleagues, and followers of Andrey Kolmogorov), archival photographs, digitized manuscripts, and playlists based on the mathematician’s diaries and the vinyl collection left by the owners of the ‘Goose-Dog House’. All digital content will be adapted for computers and mobile devices and will be available on the project website.
The VR Museum will be located on the new Skoltech campus and will open on the 120th anniversary of the birth of A. N. Kolmogorov. On the eve of the anniversary, Skoltech, in partnership with Steklov Mathematical Institute, will hold a series of events dedicated to Andrey Kolmogorov. For instance, the ‘Kolmogorov Cup’ ski race is scheduled for February-March 2023.
Contact information:
Skoltech Communications
+7 (495) 280 14 81
