I was born in 1948 and grown up in Odessa (now Ukraine) (click here for details about the city). In summer of 1964 I (with two my high school friends) took a long trip to Novosibirsk, in the middle of Siberia, where a new scientific center was being built. The purpose of the trip was to participate in the Math Olimpiads which was supposed to take a couple of weeks.

In fact I have spent in Novosibirsk about 25 years. I entered first a special phys-math high school, for a year, then continued my education in (then brand new) Novosibirsk State U. (click here) and then worked in Budker Institute for Nuclear physics (click here). . I got a Ph.D. in 1974 and in 1982 I got the second degree, roughly equivalent to Professor's rank in the west.

In 1990 I moved to US, first to Brookhaven National lab and soon to SUNY Stony Brook, where I am currently Professor of Physics and Director of Nuclear Theory Institute.

In 2003 I was promoted to Distinguished Professor,

in 2004 got a Dirac medal from University of New South Wales (Sydney),

and in 2005 a Humboldt award from Alexander fon Humboldt foundation (Germany).