Oleg Tomovich Izhboldin (Russian: Олег Томович Ижболдин; 1963 - 2000)[1] was a Russian mathematician who was first to provide a non-trivial example of an odd u-invariant field solving a classical Kaplansky's conjecture.
[2][3] Oleg Izhboldin graduated from the 45th Physics-Mathematics School in Saint Petersburg, then from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University.
This needed knowledge in different areas of mathematics was especially important in light of the recently discovered interaction (by Oleg, among others) between the theory of quadratic forms and various branches of mathematics that had seemed absolutely unrelated before... Oleg mastered the algebraic theory of quadratic forms very quickly and became one of the acknowledged experts in that field.
The pinnacle of their cooperation led to Oleg’s solution of a very old classical conjecture by Kaplansky.
It shows us a wonderful pattern of interaction of a some very different techniques and the inner workings of the “algebraic machine” that Oleg discovered and revealed.