Victor Anatolyevich Vassiliev or Vasilyev (; born April 10, 1956), is a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. He is best known for his discovery of the

Vassiliev invariant In the knot theory, mathematical theory of knots, a finite type invariant, or Vassiliev invariant (so named after Victor Anatolyevich Vassiliev), is a knot invariant that can be extended (in a precise manner to be described) to an invariant of cert ...

s in

knot theory In topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be und ...

(also known as finite type invariants), which subsume many previously discovered polynomial

knot invariant In the mathematical field of knot theory, a knot invariant is a quantity (in a broad sense) defined for each knot which is the same for equivalent knots. The equivalence is often given by ambient isotopy but can be given by homeomorphism. Some i ...

s such as the

Jones polynomial In the mathematical field of knot theory, the Jones polynomial is a knot polynomial discovered by Vaughan Jones in 1984. Specifically, it is an invariant of an oriented knot or link which assigns to each oriented knot or link a Laurent polyno ...

. He also works on

singularity theory In mathematics, singularity theory studies spaces that are almost manifolds, but not quite. A string can serve as an example of a one-dimensional manifold, if one neglects its thickness. A singularity can be made by balling it up, dropping it ...

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

computational complexity theory In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and explores the relationships between these classifications. A computational problem ...

integral geometry In mathematics, integral geometry is the theory of measures on a geometrical space invariant under the symmetry group of that space. In more recent times, the meaning has been broadened to include a view of invariant (or equivariant) transformati ...

symplectic geometry Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry and differential topology that studies symplectic manifolds; that is, differentiable manifolds equipped with a closed, nondegenerate 2-form. Symplectic geometry has its origins in the ...

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...

(geometry of

wavefront In physics, the wavefront of a time-varying ''wave field (physics), field'' is the set (locus (mathematics), locus) of all point (geometry), points having the same ''phase (waves), phase''. The term is generally meaningful only for fields that, a ...

s),

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, and Picard–Lefschetz theory.

Biography

Vassiliev studied at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics at the

Lomonosov University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

until 1981. From 1981 to 1987 he was Senior Researcher at the Documents and Archives Research Institute, Moscow and a part-time mathematics teacher at Specialized Mathematical School No. 57, Moscow. In 1982 he defended his

Candidate of Sciences A Candidate of Sciences is a Doctor of Philosophy, PhD-equivalent academic research degree in all the post-Soviet countries with the exception of Ukraine, and until the 1990s it was also awarded in Central and Eastern European countries. It is ...

thesis under

Vladimir Arnold Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (or Arnol'd; , ; 12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. He is best known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem regarding the stability of integrable systems, and contributed to s ...

and received the title of

Doctor of Sciences A Doctor of Sciences, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; ; ; ; is a higher doctoral degree in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and many Commonwealth of Independent States countries. One of the prerequisites of receiving a Doctor of Sciences ...

in 1992. From 1987 to 1989 he was Senior Researcher at the Statistical Information Systems Research Institute in Moscow. From 1989 to 1990 he was Senior Researcher at the Department of Functional Analysis in the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow. From 1990 to 1995 he was Leading Researcher at the Department of Mathematics in the Research Institute for System Studies in Moscow. Since 1991 he has been professor at the Mathematics College of the Independent Moscow University. Since 1997 he has been Principal Researcher in the Department of Geometry and Topology at the

Steklov Institute of Mathematics Steklov Institute of Mathematics or Steklov Mathematical Institute () is a premier research institute based in Moscow, specialized in mathematics, and a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The institute is named after Vladimir Andreevich Stek ...

in Moscow. Since 2009 he has been professor and department chair in Higher School of Economics - Faculty of Mathematics, HSE. Since 2019 his is a member and first chairperson of the Russian Academy of Science's Commission against falsification of scientific research. He has been a visiting professor at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

VII, and at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

(MSRI) at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He was a visiting fellow commoner at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in October–December 2000. Vasilyev has been a member of the

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

since 2003 (corresponding member since 1997). He is vice-chief editor of the Journal ''Functional Analysis and its Applications'', and the president of the

Moscow Mathematical Society The Moscow Mathematical Society (MMS) is a society of Moscow mathematicians aimed at the development of mathematics in Russia. It was created in 1864, and Victor Vassiliev is the current president. History The first meeting of the society w ...

. In 1994 he was an invited speaker at the International Mathematical Congress in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

(Plenary Address). In 1986 he received the Moscow Mathematical Society Award. On 21 February 2014 he together with other protesters against Bolotnaya Square case was arrested near Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow. On 5 March 2014 he among the other protesters was sentenced by Zamoskvoretsky Court to 10 thousand roubles (~ $150 US) fine for "resisting police". The European Parliament issued resolutions 2013/2667(RSP) of June 13, 2013 and resolution 2014/2628(RSP) of March 13, 2014 on the political nature of the Bolotnaya Square case. Prisoners of the case were recognized as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International...Most of the people accused in the Bolotnaya square case then were amnestied in December 2013 due to the public pressure both at home and abroad in support of the political prisoners. Vassiliev is married, with three children. In 2022 he emigrated to Israel due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

References

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External links

* . * . {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilyev, Victor Anatolyevich 1956 births 20th-century Russian mathematicians 21st-century Russian mathematicians Combinatorialists Topologists Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Living people Academic staff of the Higher School of Economics Academic staff of the Independent University of Moscow Moscow State University alumni