Alexandr Sergeevich Mishchenko (Russian: Александр Сергеевич Мищенко) was born on August 18, 1941, in Rostov-on-Don. He is a Russian mathematician who studies the shapes and spaces of objects (differential geometry) and how they can be stretched or twisted without tearing (topology). He also uses these areas of math to help explain problems in the biosciences, such as how living things work.

Education and career

After finishing his undergraduate studies in 1965 at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, Mishchenko became a graduate student in the Department of Higher Geometry and Topology at the same university. He completed his studies there in 1968 and earned a Candidate of Sciences degree, which is equivalent to a PhD. His PhD thesis, titled K-теория на категории бесконечных комплексов (K-theory on the category of infinite complexes), was supervised by Sergei Novikov. In 1973, Mishchenko received a Russian Doctor of Sciences degree, which is a higher academic qualification, with a thesis titled Гомотопические инварианты неодносвязных многообразий (Homotopy invariants of non-simply connected varieties).

Since 1979, Mishchenko has been a full professor in the Department of Higher Geometry and Topology at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State University. He also works at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics. His research focuses on geometry and topology, the use of algebraic and functional methods in the study of smooth shapes with non-commutative geometry and topology, and the application of geometry and topology to mathematical modeling in ecology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. He has also conducted research on the history of mathematics, mathematical education, and the history of teaching mathematics. Mishchenko is the author or coauthor of over 100 research articles.

In 1970, he spoke at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Nice. In 1971, he shared the Moscow Mathematical Society Prize with Victor Buchstaber for research on the K-theory of infinite-dimensional CW-complexes. In 1996, Mishchenko received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in science and technology with Anatoly Fomenko for a series of studies on invariants of smooth manifolds and Hamiltonian dynamical systems. In 2006, he was honored with the title of Honored Professor of Moscow State University.

Selected publications

• Mishchenko, A. S. (1971). "Integral geodesics of a flow on Lie groups." Functional Analysis and Its Applications. 4 (3): 232–235. doi: 10.1007/BF01075243. S2CID 121952895.
• Miščenko, A. S. (1974). "Infinite-dimensional representations of discrete groups, and higher signatures." Izvestiya: Mathematics. 8 (1): 85. Bibcode: 1974IzMat…8…85M. doi: 10.1070/IM1974v008n01ABEH002097. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR Ser. Mat. 38, 81–106 (1974).
• Mishchenko, A. S.; Fomenko, A. T. (1978). "Generalized Liouville method of integration of Hamiltonian systems." Functional Analysis and Its Applications. 12 (2): 113–121. doi: 10.1007/BF01076254. S2CID 121557031.
• Mishchenko, A. S.; Fomenko, A. T. (1978). "Euler equations on finite-dimensional Lie groups." Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Matematicheskaya. 42 (2): 396–415. Bibcode: 1978IzMat..12..371M. doi: 10.1070/IM1978v012n02ABEH001859.
• Mishchenko, A.S. (1979). "C -algebras and K-theory." In: Algebraic topology, Aarhus 1978 (Proc. Sympos., Univ. Aarhus, Aarhus, 1978). Lecture Notes in Math., vol. 763. Berlin: Springer. pp. 262–274.
• Mishchenko, A. S.; Fomenko, A. T. (1979). "The index of elliptic operators over C -algebras." Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Matematicheskaya. 43 (4): 831–859.
• Manuilov, V. M.; Mishchenko, A. S. (2001). "Almost, asymptotic and Fredholm representations of discrete groups." Acta Applic