Victor Ya. Pan is a Soviet and American mathematician and computer scientist. He earned his Ph.D. at Moscow University then continued at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. During that time, he published a number of significant papers and became known informally as "polynomial Pan" for his pioneering work in the area of polynomial computations. In late 1970s, he immigrated in the United States and held positions at several institutions including IBM Research. Since 1988, he has taught at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he was appointed Distinguished Professor in 2000.
Victor Pan is an expert in computational complexity and has developed a number of new algorithms. One of his notable early results is a proof that the number of multiplications in Horner scheme is optimal.
Famous quotes containing the words victor and/or pan:
“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to see animals fighting, not the victor raving over the vanquished.... It is the same in gambling, and the same in the search for truth.... We never seek things for themselveswhat we seek is the very seeking of things.”
—Blaise Pascal (16231662)
“A spasm band is a miscellaneous collection of a soap box, tin cans, pan tops, nails, drumsticks, and little Negro boys. When mixed in the proper proportions this results in the wildest shuffle dancing, accompanied by a bumping rhythm.”
—For the City of New Orleans, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)