It's me

Grigori M. Sigalov, Ph.D.

Biographical Sketch
This is my short biography which covers the key facts both of my private life and professional activities.

I was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation, USSR, on July 21, 1967. I lived there until 1984 except 1975-1981 when my family lived in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a town 150 km to the north from Rostov. My father have been a factory worker and later a manager, and my mother has been an economist. I have also an older brother who is a university lecturer in philosophy. I'm going to add a page especially devoted to the routes of my family when time permits...

In 1984, I have graduated with gold medal (highest possible rank in Russia's secondary schools) from the school no. 5 of Rostov-on-Don. This school is famous for high-level teaching of mathematical and physical subjects (by the way, geographical as well).

The same summer I entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Department of Molecular and Chemical Physics. This choice was quite natural for me since during the schools years I was interested very much in physics and especially mathematics, and MIPT was famous as the highest ranking physical university of the Soviet Union. Years after I have entered it I can say that I have never regretted I did it.

After 3 years of general courses in pure and applied mathematics, general and theoretical physics, general and physical chemistry, I began to specialize in polymer science. The main subjects I studied during last 3 years of the university course were polymer physics (lectures were given by Prof. Edouard F. Oleinik), polymer chemistry (Prof. Konstantin S. Kazansky), polymer mechanics (Prof. Leonid I. Manevitch), polymer technology (Prof. Boris A. Rozenberg), composites materials (Prof. Alexander A. Berlin), burning of polymers (Prof. Nikolay A. Khalturinsky), methods of investigation of polymers (Prof. Leonid N. Grigorov). I graduated with M.S. diploma with distinction (summa cum lauda) in 1990.

During the 3 last university years every student of MIPT is performing some research under the guidance of his "chief" from so called "base institute", (usually an academic research institute). My supervisor was Prof. L.I.Manevitch, the head of the laboratory of mechanics of polymers and composites of the Institute of Chemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences. This outstanding institute was later named after its foundator, the father of contemporary chemical physics, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Prof. Nikolay N. Semenov.

After having completed my MS course, I entered the Ph.D. course of MIPT and so I became a PhD student of Prof. L.I.Manevitch. My research was connected with theoretical investigation of the Ising model which is a very important and fruitful model of disordered (non-crystalline) solids, in particular polymers. I succeeded in developing a new probabilistic approach to the description of the statics and dymanics of the Ising model. It was the topic of my Ph.D. thesis which was defended in November 1993.

After the thesis defence I joined the N.N.Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics (Moscow), laboratory of Prof. L.I.Manevitch, now as a scientific researcher. Soon I moved to the Institute of Chemical Physics in Chernogolovka (Moscow region, Russia), laboratory of Prof. B.A.Rozenberg. Nowadays, I'm working here on a permanent position of senior researcher, deputy head of laboratory. My research is concerned with a quickly developing field of polymer chemistry and physics, the phase separation in multicomponent polymer/oligomer systems induced by cure reactions. In May 1996 - May 1997 I stayed with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, laboratory of Prof. Takashi Inoue as a post-doctoral visiting researcher.

I was married in September 1994, and have a little son born in June 1996 (you can see our family photo). My main hobbies are caving, photography, and coins collecting. I'm also fond of foreign languages. I can speak well enough English, French, Ukrainian, and I can read/write to a certain extent in German, Spanish, Bielorussian, Bulgarian, Polish, Japanese, and Esperanto.

Home Home page of Grigori Sigalov