I was awarded an MSc degree (with honours) in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science at Moscow State Engineering Physics Institute - National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) which is one of top Russian universities (there are six Nobel Prize winners among its famous alumni and faculty - more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Engineering_Physics_Institute). From 1985 to 1992, I was employed by the Flight Research Institute (Moscow Region). While there, I worked for the aviation and space industries as a senior scientist and manager of mission-critical projects with a main focus on flight-test visualisation and was engaged in creating innovative software for the “Buran” spacecraft - the Russian “Shuttle” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)). This work gave me valuable industrial experience in solving practical problems in a very challenging and innovative area. Just before coming to Bournemouth I worked as an Associate Professor in my alma-mater MEPhI.

In the 1990s, I became more involved in international research collaborations. In 1993, I was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Royal Society and spent a year at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Warwick. Additionally from July 1998 to July 1999, I worked as a Visiting Researcher at the Shape Modelling Laboratory of the University of Aizu - the first university in Japan exclusively dedicated to computer science. Both prestige scholarships allowed me to widen my research horizons and provided quite a few invaluable contacts with colleagues in different disciplined. In October 2000 I started my work at NCCA as a full-time researcher and then became a Senior Research Lecturer.

Research

The main focus of my research is on functionally-based Geometric Modelling and its applications in Computer Animation, Computer Art and 3D Fabrication. I am involved in R&D on a next-generation computer animation system based on a unifying cellular-functional representation that was originated by our research team. In particular, I am working on the modelling and animation of objects with varying material distribution and heterogeneous internal structures. I have been developing the theoretical framework for hybrid modelling of time-variant heterogeneous objects. Devising a high-level language for modelling and animation of such objects based on the notion of the dynamic implicit complexes is the subject of my particular interest.

I am a designer of a high-level modelling languages HyperFun and HyperJazz. I am also interested in applying so-called "Empirical Modelling" principles to Computer Games with unusually high interactivity and openness for modification on the fly. In collaboration with Prof. A. Pasko, I have supervised the HyperFun project. This is an international free and open source software development project with collaborating researchers from different countries (UK, Japan, Russia, France and the USA). The software developed for this project have found numerous applications in education, research, design, art and cultural heritage, and computer animation.

I have served an editorial board member for a number of journals and a program committee member for many inter5national conferences. I am a reviewer for Computer Graphics Forum, Computers and Graphics, Computer Aided Design and for other journals and conferences. I have served as a Technical Program Committee Co-Chair for the Shape Modeling International 2013 (10-12 July, 2013, Bournemouth) and as a guest editor of a special issue of Computers and Graphics (Vol. 37, No. 6).

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