Nikolay Sergeyevich Krylov

Nikolay Sergeevich Krylov (Russian: Никола́й Серге́евич Крыло́в}; 10 August 1917 – 21 June 1947) was a Russian theoretical physicist known for his work on the foundations of statistical physics. He showed that a sufficient condition for a dynamical system to relax to equilibrium is for it to be mixing.

Krylov was born in Ustyuzhna, Vologda Governorate, in the Russian Empire (now Vologda Oblast of Russia). He graduated from Leningrad University with a degree in physics. He then studied with Fock and wrote a candidate's thesis on the foundations of statistical mechanics titled Mixing processes in phase space (1941). When Germany invaded and besieged Leningrad, Krylov was assigned to the air defense of the city. He continued studying while on active duty and defended a Ph.D. thesis in Kazan, where his University was relocated, the following year. He then worked at various institutes in the Soviet Union before returning to Leningrad, but fell ill in 1946 and died at the age of twenty-nine.