Biography

I was born in a quiet green town called Zhukovsky.

The town bears the name of the Father of Russian Aviation Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky. One of Zhukovsky’s sayings inspired me in childhood. It is engraved on a stone near his monument: “Man will fly through the power of his mind, not the strength of his muscles.”

I finished school #3 with flying colors.

When my cousin was accepted at this school, my grandmother advised him to study well so that he is awarded a golden medal at graduation as I was. After thinking for a while, my cousin asked: “Can I get a chocolate medal instead?” That’s a wise choice!

Moreover, I successfully finished the school of choral art “Poliot”.

I fell in love with music while singing and playing the piano here, and then music opened the whole world for me. Just imagine, I sang in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican and in Shaolin Monastery in China!

Once I was the 10th strongest Go player in Russia among teenagers.

My grandfather laid the foundation for this achievement. He taught me how to play chess when I was a child. Later I joined chess club “Double check”.

I learnt about Go after one of chess competitions. I joined Go club “Sente” at high school, reached 1 dan in a year and won a Moscow championship among teenagers. This victory brought me to a country-wide tournament where I took the 10th place.

I climbed to 4 dan at the peak.

I got a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

This is where differential equations and stochastic integrals became my friends.

Next, I earned a master’s degree in Economics at New Economic School.

Here I realized that Finance is the field which I would like to contribute to.

Finally, I obtained PhD in Finance at INSEAD.

I turned into a researcher here.

I am an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Norwegian School of Economics now.

It’s time to do cool research! Check my ongoing projects here.