Kantorovich was born on 19 January 1912, to a
Russian Jewish family. His father was a doctor practicing in
Saint Petersburg. In 1926, at the age of fourteen, he began his studies at
Leningrad State University. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics in 1930, and began his graduate studies. In 1934, at the age of 22 years, he became a full professor. In 1935 he received his
doctoral degree. Later, Kantorovich worked for the
Soviet government. He was given the task of
optimizing production in a
plywood industry. He devised the mathematical technique now known as
linear programming in 1939, some years before it was advanced by
George Dantzig. He authored several books including
The Mathematical Method of Production Planning and Organization (Russian original 1939),
The Best Uses of Economic Resources (Russian original 1959), and, with Vladimir Ivanovich Krylov,
Approximate methods of higher analysis (Russian original 1936). For his work, Kantorovich was awarded the
Stalin Prize in 1949. After 1939, he became a professor at
Military Engineering-Technical University. During the
Siege of Leningrad, Kantorovich was a professor at
VITU of Navy and worked on safety of the
Road of Life. He calculated the optimal distance between cars on ice in dependence of the thickness of ice and the temperature of the air. In December 1941 and January 1942, Kantorovich walked himself between cars driving on the ice of
Lake Ladoga on the
Road of Life to ensure that cars did not sink. However, many cars with food for survivors of the siege were destroyed by the
German airstrikes. For his feat and courage Kantorovich was awarded the
Order of the Patriotic War, and was decorated with the medal
For Defense of Leningrad. In 1948 Kantorovich was assigned to the atomic project of the USSR. After 1960, Kantorovich lived and worked in
Novosibirsk, where he created and took charge of the Department of Computational Mathematics in
Novosibirsk State University. The
Nobel Memorial Prize, which he shared with
Tjalling Koopmans, was given "for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources." ==Mathematics==