Charity is a chance to share opportunities. My academic career started during the time of the Soviet Union. At that time, we had no formalized system of grants, but a system of recommendations was used instead. I am incredibly grateful to my teachers and academics, who believed in me and recommended me, which was of great help to me as a young research associate.
In turn, it became important to me to organize a process that would help young scientists promote their ideas and achieve results. I set out to identify and support those who wanted to change the world with their discoveries, or at least contribute to scientific progress. In the 2000s, we set up the Human Capital Foundation, which awarded research grants in three areas: physics, IT, and economics. It was this system of grants that allowed me to meet Academician Nikolay Alexeyevich Chernoplekov, who introduced me to superconductivity and to a team of young researchers. This meeting was the impetus for the founding of SuperOx, which has been my focus in the last decade.
Supporting
the New Economic School (NES)
the New Economic School (NES)
In the late 1980s, before I took office in the Russian Ministry of Finance, I worked under the direction of Academician Valery Leonidovich Makarov, Director of the Central Economic Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In the early 1990s, Valery Leonidovich and Barry W. Ickes, Professor of Economics at Pennsylvania State University, were engaged in a project aimed at creating the NES. When they told me about their plans, I was ecstatic. My informal contact with the two founders of the NES grew into a long-term partnership with the school, which has turned into Russia's leading educational institution in the field of economics.
My collaboration with the school led to nearly-immediate results. Arkady Dvorkovich, a talented first-time graduate from the NES, was awarded a position in the Ministry of Finance. There, he headed the Economic Expert Group, a center for analysis I set up in preparation of negotiations with international financial institutions. For years now, NES graduates have been getting jobs in the government and Central Bank of the Russian Federation. In these positions, they apply the knowledge they obtained at the NES and, at the same time, continue to grow as they gain valuable practical experience. Many of them have gone on to have brilliant careers.
Today, as a member of the Board of Directors, I regularly attend meetings and activities held at the school. I am pleased to see that the NES is further growing and evolving, that tremendous attention is being paid to the quality of the education program, and that professors and graduates from the school are becoming increasingly prominent in Russia and across the globe.
Today, as a member of the Board of Directors, I regularly attend meetings and activities held at the school. I am pleased to see that the NES is further growing and evolving, that tremendous attention is being paid to the quality of the education program, and that professors and graduates from the school are becoming increasingly prominent in Russia and across the globe.
Supporting the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg
When the Yeltsin Center was being established, its organizers turned to Russian businessmen and politicians for guidance. Supporting the initiative was important to me. Historically speaking, the 1990s were a rare and unique decade in time. Even my children now look at that decade as nothing short of erratic. The mission of the center is to help people make sense of what happened during that tumultuous time by unfolding its versatile and complex nature.
History is more than documents; it's the opinions of those who lived it, even if sometimes they contradict one another. The organizers managed to speak with most of the period's central figures and identify its most formative moments.
I attended the opening of the Yeltsin Center, and, a few years later, brought my daughter and my son there. I thought it was important for them to get a feeling for that time period and to develop an impression of what the country was like just 30 years ago. We spent half a day in the museum wandering through the rooms, watching historical documentaries, and discussing what we were seeing.
By immersing ourselves into a time period this way, we are able to gain the understanding that history is made by those who are not afraid and who strive to make the world better.
I attended the opening of the Yeltsin Center, and, a few years later, brought my daughter and my son there. I thought it was important for them to get a feeling for that time period and to develop an impression of what the country was like just 30 years ago. We spent half a day in the museum wandering through the rooms, watching historical documentaries, and discussing what we were seeing.
By immersing ourselves into a time period this way, we are able to gain the understanding that history is made by those who are not afraid and who strive to make the world better.
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