Nikolai Valeryevich Durov[a] (Russian: Николай Валерьевич Дуров; born 21 November 1980) is a Russian programmer and mathematician. He is the elder brother of Pavel Durov, with whom he founded the social networking site VK and later Telegram Messenger.[2]

Nikolai Durov
Николай Дуров
Born (1980-11-21) 21 November 1980 (age 44)
Leningrad, Soviet Union
CitizenshipRussia
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Latvia[1]
Alma materSaint Petersburg State University,
University of Bonn
Occupation(s)Programmer, mathematician
Known forFounding VK
Founding Telegram Messenger
FatherValery Durov
RelativesPavel Durov (brother)
AwardsSt. Petersburg Mathematical Society Young Mathematician Prize (2006)
Websitewww.pdmi.ras.ru/eng/perso/durov.php

Early life and education

edit

Nikolai is the son of Valery Durov, a Doctor of Philological Sciences and a professor of philology during Nikolai's time at Saint Petersburg State University.[3] As a youth, he reportedly could read at an adult level by age three and solve cubic equations by age eight.[4]

Competing as "Nikolai Dourov", he won gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad in the three years he participated of 1996, 1997, and 1998.[5] Furthermore, participating in each yearly contest from 1995 through 1998, he accrued three silver medals and one gold medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics.[6] With his friend Andrey Lopatin,[7][8] Durov was a member of the Saint Petersburg State University ACM team, which won the gold at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in 2000[9] and 2001.[10]

He received his first PhD from Saint Petersburg State University in 2005 with his thesis "New Approach to Arakelov Geometry".[11] Continuing at the University of Bonn, he obtained in 2007 a second PhD under the supervision of Gerd Faltings with his thesis on singular Arakelov geometry.[12]

Career

edit

Research

edit

Durov introduced commutative algebraic monads as a generalization of local objects in a generalized algebraic geometry.[13] Versions of a tropical geometry, of an absolute geometry over a field with one element and an algebraic analogue of Arakelov theory were realized in this setup.

He held the position of senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Algebra and Number Theory at the St. Petersburg Department of Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[14]

Other work

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^ In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Valeryevich and the family name is Durov.

References

edit
  1. ^ The article does not provide concrete proof for this "«Николай абсолютно в космосе. Помимо математики, его интересует политика — в своей оптике» Politico утверждает, что Франция преследует не только Павла Дурова, но и его брата Николая. Рассказываем, что о нем известно — Meduza". Meduza. 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  2. ^ Shu, Catherine (28 October 2013). "Meet Telegram, A Secure Messaging App From The Founders Of VK, Russia's Largest Social Network - TechCrunch". TechCrunch.
  3. ^ Дуров Валерий Семёнович (in Russian). Филологический факультет СПбГУ. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  4. ^ Loucaides, Darren (8 February 2022). "How Telegram Became the Anti-Facebook". Wired. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  5. ^ "International Mathematical Olympiad - Nikolai Dourov". www.imo-official.org. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Nikolai Dourov". stats.ioinformatics.org. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  7. ^ "Самые умные: как сложилась карьера победителей мировых IT-чемпионатов" [The smartest: how the winners of the world IT championships fared in their careers] (in Russian). RBC. 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  8. ^ "How Telegram Became the Anti-Facebook". Wired. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Final report of the ACM programming contest 2000". Archived from the original on 2 January 2011.
  10. ^ "Final report of the ACM programming contest 2001". Archived from the original on 2 January 2011.
  11. ^ Durov, Nikolai (16 April 2007). "New Approach to Arakelov Geometry". arXiv:0704.2030 [math.AG].
  12. ^ "PhD Students of Gerd Faltings". www.hcm.uni-bonn.de. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
  13. ^ Nikolai, Durov (16 April 2007). "New Approach to Arakelov Geometry". arXiv:0704.2030 [math.AG].
  14. ^ "PDMI - Durov N.V." www.pdmi.ras.ru.
  15. ^ Anton, Blagoveshchensky (30 April 2014). "Брат Павла Дурова предсказал новые увольнения из "ВКонтакте"". Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  16. ^ "Telegram TON (Telegram Open Network)". Coinpost. Retrieved 23 March 2021.