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...Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

         (W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939).

I am a Siberian-born mathematician, who after an academic career spanning permanent University appointments in the old USSR, New Zealand, and Canada has taken early retirement from the University of Ottawa, ON (where I am now Emeritus Professor) and went to Brazil as a mathematical freelancer. I have spent a few years on the off-shore island of Santa Catarina, a year in Salvador, Bahia, over a year in João Pessoa, PB, and a year and a half on road trips across Brazil in a small but resilient Fiesta. In October last year I was hired as a 'Senior Visiting Professor' by the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, for 2 years, in principle renewable for 2 more, but let us see how it goes.

My most interesting results to date are related to the dynamical theory of infinite dimensional groups, and many of them appear in this AMS book of mine; in particular, I have contributed the letter P to what is now known as the K-P-T correspondence. Among my other interests are mathematical topics related to datasets. Here are my publications on  Google Scholar, Zentralblatt für Math, and DBLP computer science database. 

At 60+ the brain still gets flashes of insight, and two among a dozen memorable works date from the Brazilian years: skew-amenability of finite energy loop groups and a universally consistent learning rule with a universally monotone error. 

Since getting a Ph.D. from Moscow University 42 years ago, I was mostly making my living by teaching - on four different continents, in four different countries, in four different languages.... did I pay my dues, or not quite yet?