Ivan Ivanovich Zhegalkin


Ivan Ivanovich Zhegalkin was a Russian mathematician. He is best known for his formulation of Boolean algebra as the theory of the ring of integers mod 2, via what are now called Zhegalkin polynomials.
Zhegalkin was professor of mathematics at Moscow State University. He helped found the thriving mathematical logic group there, which became the Department of Mathematical Logic established by Sofia Janovskaja in 1959. Reminiscing on his student days, Nikolai Nikolaevich Luzin recalls Zhegalkin as the only professor he was not afraid of.