1955 – He was born in Khabarovsk, Soviet Union Russia.
1985 – He took his doctoral degree at Novosibirsk University, and a higher degree at Leningrad State University.
1987 – He had a position in Novosibirsk until this year, when he left the Soviet Union.
1990 – He became a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1994 – He transfers at the University of Chicago , then later on at Yale University. He was known for his work on combinatorial problems in non-associative algebra and group theory, including his solution of the restricted Burnside problem. He was awarded a Fields Medal
2002 – He became a professor at the University of California, San Diego.