Ergodic theory, Alexandra Bellow's field of specialization, deals with the long term averages of the successive values of a function on a set when the set is mapped into itself, and whether these averages equal (converge to) a reasonable function on the set. The theory applies to probability and time series, and to the concept of entropy in physics and information theory. Bellow has proved significant results in this field.

Alexandra Bellow was born in Bucharest, Romania, on August 30, 1935. Her father, Dumitru Bagdasar, had studied medicine in the United States. He was a famous neurosurgeon who founded a school of neurosurgery in Romania in that year. Her mother, Florica Bagdasar, was a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of mentally retarded children. The Romanian philosopher Nicolae Bagdasar was Bellow's uncle. After World War II, the politics of Romania were extremely unstable as the communists took control of the country...