Citation | Sinai quickly established himself as the leading figure in ergodic theory and dynamical systems, the modern foundation for statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. His introduction (with Kolmogorov) of information theory into this area reconnected international research with the fundamental problems left open by such pioneers as Boltzmann and Gibbs and redirected an abstract field toward the problems of smooth dynamics raised by Anosov and Smale. His early work gave rise to the basic methods and tools required to deal with the ubiquitous phenomena of chaos and complexity. For more than 40 years his influence in such diverse fields as fluid mechanics, hard sphere gas dynamics, probability, KAM theory, Schrödinger operators and low temperature physics has been profound and has led to his award of numerous international prizes and honorary degrees and to his membership of several national academies |