Time-stamp: Note: the last version of this file is available on http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/cv.html Curriculum Vitae – Oleg Shalaev Availability: 04/16/2014. Contact information: ☎573-268-2108 email: chalaev@gmail.com skype ID: chalaev http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/ Personality I am not an outstanding programmer and/or system administrator – many people would beat me in that. (Sometimes I have a feeling of being top professional in programming; this happens, for example, when I see recruiting websites which are unable to distinguish a “physicist” from “physician” or “physical therapy” ☺.) However, it is not easy to find someone who can solve a problem from the very beginning until the end better than me, namely: (a) formalize the problem, (b) invent the algorithm(s), (c) program the code and test it, and (d) write the report and make a presentation. Next, I believe that there is no knowledge that I would be unable to understand. I do not trust statements which I can not demonstrate myself, no matter how influential is the person who makes them. In particular, I do not trust books, and from time to time find errors in them. Ready to relocate: I have done it 5 times during the last 15 years, for a total distance of 9920 miles, and more or less got used to it. Employment history •04/15/2013-present: post-doctoral researcher at the University of Rochester (NY). Supervisor: Hanan Dery 525 Computer Studies Bldg., P.O. BOX 270231, 14627-0231 Rochester NY, USA. ☎585-275-3870. •08/16/2012-03/29/2013: post-doctoral researcher at the California State University at Northridge. Supervisor: Nicholas Kioussis Live Oak Hall, CSUN, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330, USA. phone: 818-677-7733. •12/01/2008-08/15/2012: post-doctoral researcher at the University of Missouri. Supervisor: Giovanni Vignale 223 Physics Bldg., University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-7010, USA. ☎573-882-3670. •11/01/2003-11/30/2008: post-doctoral researcher at the University of Basel (Switzerland). Supervisor: Daniel Loss University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. ☎+41-61-267-3750. Education •1998 M.S. in Physics with Distinction, St. Petersburg Technical University: “Transport properties of HTSC: evidence of Tc -inhomogeneity”. •2003 Ph.D. in Physics at SISSA: “Nonequilibrium persistent currents in mesoscopic disordered systems”. General skills •Work style: many people are proud to be experts in software XXX and computer language YYY; many job advertisements require such proficiency. From my point of view software proficiency is somewhat secondary: I always learned the necessary software and computer languages fast when I needed them. For me the hardest part of a problem is to develop an appropriate algorithm; its programming is just a routine. When I work alone, I have a freedom of choosing the optimal (free) software which is the most convenient for the particular problem. Sometimes within the one problem I use completely different software systems which interact with each other (for example, maxima, C++ and gnuplot). •Eager to learn: during the last three years I learned several topics in physics: (i) inverse scattering theory, (ii) quantum relaxation, and (iii) group theory (see my physics CV). Somewhat less important for my work was the knowledge of linux, SQL, LISP, C++, maxima, perl which I also learned myself. Finally, certain things I learn just because an opportunity comes, even if they appear to be useless at the moment. For example, I learned Italian and German because I lived in Italy and Switzerland, and no one has ever payed me for being able to speak these languages. •Good in calculations: Experienced in doing analytical (by hand and using CAS maxima) and numerical (maxima, C++ with LAPACK and QUADPACK libraries) calculations. •Creative, algorithm developer: As a scientist I often do the things which have never been done before, or, in other words, I love innovations. I like to invent my own, new approaches to problems; one could check the validity of this last statement by looking on my articles (see http://arxiv.org/find/cond-mat/1/au:+Chalaev_O/0/1/0/all/0/1), where I utilize several very different physical/mathematical techniques, enumerated in my physics CV (see the next section). •Good in mathematics and numerical methods: In my University I had great luck with the mathematics teacher. In total I passed 8 exams on linear algebra, complex analysis, topological and metric spaces, manifolds, general theory of integrals (including Lebesgue measure), and probability theory based on Kolmogorov axioms. On every examination I had to demonstrate several (randomly chosen from the course) theorems (sometimes – only one if the proof was really long) without the help of books, notes and friends. Much of this knowledge is sleeping, but can be woken up fast: e.g., now I have to remember grounds of differential geometry (curved spaces, connections, Christoffel symbols – see http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/geometry.pdf) and I do it fast even though I have never used differential geometry during the last 18 years. Also we had a very decent course on numerical methods: linear algebra, interpolation, integration, differential equations. All the methods were derived analytically with estimates of speed and accuracy. Physics background My physics expertize is described by the following PACS codes: 02.30.Zz, 02.40.-k, 61.50.Ah, 71.20.Mq, 71.20.Nr, 71.70.Ej, 72.70.+m, 73.23.-b, 73.23.Ra. You might want to take a look on my articles (see http://arxiv.org/find/cond-mat/1/au:+Chalaev_O/0/1/0/all/0/1) and/or download the CV where I advertise my physics skills (see http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/cv.pdf). Programing skills •I learn computer languages fast. •GNU/Linux: very advanced (12 years of experience). Abandoned Windows in 1999, see https://linuxcounter.net/user/310541.html •Large data sets: had experience in dealing with about 90.000.000 files; for that I had to recompile the linux kernel with the Reiserfs4 support. •SQL: PostgreSQL – used it for personal needs: wrote a perl-script (using PERL DBI) which accumulates data for all NYSE listings on my PC. The data is downloaded using free Yahoo-finance web service and is stored in my local PostgreSQL database. This summer (06/25/2012 and 06/29/2012) I have passed two SQL tests which made me self-confident enough to claim that I am quite good in it (at least with Postgre SQL). •html – very basic (without java and php), just wrote my personal web site, see http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/ •CAS: maxima – very advanced user (wrote in total 267300 lines and 15016877 symbols of code), Mathematica – was a very advanced user before I have abandoned it 6 years ago. However, in the end of May I had to rewrite an (approx. one-page) maxima program in Mathematica and realized that I recover my Mathematica experience fast. •LISP: I used it just a couple of times; For example, when I published my large program for dealing (generating, selecting and calculating) with Feynman diagrams, I decided to write comments in both English and Russian. For convenience I wrote a LISP-function for the emacs editor which shows comments only in the desired language. Despite the fact that I had no previous LISP experience, this did not take much time because maxima (which I know really well) is based on LISP. •Python: The Python test which I did 06/29/2012 demonstrated me that Python is very similar to maxima (see above), so I passed the test quickly despite the absence of the previous Python experience. •C++: good in scientific programming (LAPACK, multithreading with OpenMP), see an example at http://quantumtheory.physik.unibas.ch/shalaev/kp.tar.bz2 •bash, sed, awk, emacs – advanced level; perl – wrote several middle-basic level scripts (in total 4152 lines and 144293 symbols of code). •LaTeX – very advanced level. Often my progams generate automatic human readable reports using the folowing chain: C++ and/or maxima → gnuplot → LaTeX → PDF. •Multitasking: OpenMP, OpenMPI + ganglia. •MS Excel: I have superficial experience (calculating averages and other simple functions) with two free analogs of MS Excel: gnumeric and Open Office Calc. At least one of those two can import/export data from/to MS Excel. I believe I could make fast (two weeks) friendship with MS Excel if I have two computers on my desk: one with MS Windows + Excel and another one which I will setup myself and populate it with free software. Other skills and general life experience Hobbies: linux, German, http://www.openstreetmap.org and table tennis. I lived in Russia, Italy, Switzerland, USA; I met many people of different (sometimes – exotic) cultural backgrounds / nationalities. Apart from English, I speak/read/write Russian and Italian fluently. I also fluently speak German (B1 certificate from Goethe Institut), but make mistakes in declensions.