Bondareva, Olga (1937–1991)

Abstract

Olga Nikolajevna Bondareva was born in St Petersburg on 27 April 1937. She joined the Mathematical Faculty of the Leningrad State University in 1954, and completed a Ph.D. in mathematics at the Leningrad State University in 1963, in part under the supervision of Nicolaj Vorobiev. Her thesis was entitled ‘The Theory of the Core in an n-Person Game’. Bondareva rose through the ranks at Leningrad State University to become a senior research fellow in 1972 and a leading research fellow in 1989. Because she sympathized with a student who wished to emigrate to Israel, however, she was prohibited from teaching from 1973 until 1989. With perestroika and increased freedom to travel outside the Soviet Union, she became an active and energetic international figure in game theory. She died as a result of a traffic accident on 9 December 1991.