At the risk of being perceived as rather immodest, here’s my attempt to introduce myself, including the following information:

 

Key moments in my life: environment in which I was born, grew up, studied and worked; professional education, experience, and accomplishments, which I think I achieved.

Brief info about my family

My interests

My philosophical views and current view on mathematics

 

 

 

Key Moments in My Life (in chronological order)

 

(1961)

Summer break after the 6th grade. Beginning signs of maturity. Thoughts: who am I, what am I, merely a dreamer? (in the words of Russian poet Yesenin).

Philosophical (although at that time I did not know what philosophy was) thoughts about meaning of life, values, problems and ways of solving adult world problems.

 

Soon came my book “Formulas of life. Concentrated in 3 theses, 5 principles and 99 formulas of philosophy of human life (or food for thought only)”. By soon I mean after 48 years. Quite a typical period of time for a scholar.

 

(1962)

Reflections on future field of study. Very quickly I chose mathematics. Began a serious acquaintance with school mathematics, the subjects I already passed in school and the ones upcoming. Why mathematics?

 

I realized mastering physics, chemistry, biology, etc. was beyond my ability. It seemed to me that math was the simplest science in the world. Later I learned this firsthand. Now I can say why: mathematics studies abstract, slightly detached, simplified model of life. Yet, many believe that mathematical objects cannot be touched or felt. You think it is easy to study an object that can be touched? In fact, life is much more complicated, yet, at the same time, simpler than we imagine.

 

(1963)

8th grade. Starting point of teaching and tutoring activities. Many of my classmates decided to apply to technical colleges, for which they had to pass entrance exams. In the duration of two months I tutored them to pass their exams and almost all of them got admitted. To this date, I get gratitudes from my friends. It was then when I realized I had a talent and inherent love for teaching. At that point, I had no idea that was my first step towards becoming a professor.

 

(1966 - 1971)

Education in Novosibirsk State University (NSU). In addition to core mathematics, I developed interest towards its history (origins), methodology and philosophy (basics). Life-defining influence of scholars who taught me:

• A. D. Alexandrov, world renowned academician, author of the world famous book “Axiomatic Geometry.”

• Leonid V. Kantorovich, Nobel prize winner, academician, creator of the new field Mathematical Economics.

• Y. L. Vasilev, well-known specialist in Discrete Mathematics, expert in history and philosophy of sciences, in particular, mathematics.

 

(1968 - 1969)

Physics-mathematics summer school. Working with gifted mathematics students from Siberia and further east. Students learned from me, while I learned and grew from the experience.

 

(1971 - 1979)

Research in the Siberian Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Sciences of USSR. My golden years, lived and worked in the environment of intellectuals representing different fields of pure and applied mathematics.

Period of in-depth understanding of mathematics, as well as research in theory of coding and complexity of boolean functions.

 

(1971)

1. Moscow State University. First scientific talk in the mathematical cybernetics seminar of the academician C. V. Yablonskiy. Academic O. B. Lupanov enters my life in the form of a scientific advisor and mentor.

2. Library of V. I. Lenin. Introduction to the primary sources of mathematics.

 

(1976)

Candidate of Sciences (PhD) dissertation defense (on complexity of describing characteristic boolean functions of linear codes with formulas).

 

(1979 - 2011)

Tashkent State University (currently National University of Uzbekistan):

• Docent (Assistant Professor), then Professor of the department.

• Head of Computational Linguistics laboratory.

• Head of Computational Linguistics department.

• The head of scientific seminar "Discrete Mathematics and its Application."

• Created a scientific team/school on discrete mathematics. Advised approximately 100 qualified specialists (doctoral, PhD and Master’s candidates).

 

(1984/9/15-1984/12/15)

Lecturer on Discrete Mathematics in the fall semester of the Stefan Banach International Mathematical Centre. Warsaw, Poland.

 

(1993)

Doctoral dissertation defense (combinatorial-metric characteristics of 3D convex polytopes). Theoretical scientist.

 

(1981 - 1992)

Head of mathematical project on process automation and optimization of diamond production. Client: GinAlmazZoloto, USSR.

 

(2007 - 2009)

Head of project on accessibility and effective usage of computers for the blind. Client: Society of the Blind of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Applied scientist.

 

(1979 - 2011)

Educational experience.

Teaching Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Logic course in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Technologies. Teaching Computational Linguistics course in the Departments of Uzbek Philology and Foreign Philology.

 

(1995 - present)

Created and developed Pulatov Education Center providing innovative methods of teaching mathematics, English and helping students establish their own world outlook.

 

General Purpose is to educate the youth using an interconnected approach:

• Mathematics with the focus on developing logical thinking

• Language (English) with the focus on listening, writing, reading and speaking

• Philosophy with the focus on formation of one’s own worldview

• Art with the focus on deepening the perception of the world.

 

Practical Purpose is to prepare the youth for colleges and universities. While offering complimentary tutoring services, my program prepared over 200 youth for colleges and universities, with at least 100 of them in universities and colleges abroad.

 

Classes are taught in conversational style between teacher and students. The main differentiating points of our method is viewing the reality based on pairs:

• Mind + Soul

• Thoughts + Feelings

• Brain + Computer

• STEAM: STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) + ART

 

I developed a reformed (content + style) program for teaching mathematics with:

• Shortened content: solutions to standard problems reduced or eliminated. Standard solutions are for computers, atypical problems are for students.

• Deepened content: additional context on problems (origins, interdependencies, benefits, etc.)

• Widened content: additional topics - mathematical foundations of computer science (discrete mathematics).

• Multi-leveled artistic-popular-scientific style.

 

Currently, in the process of writing a series of textbooks on school mathematics, including pre-school math, ideas on modern math, history and philosophy of math, reference manual, and self-evaluation tools. Scientific+Artistic+Popular, what we call “SmARTsy” style. Supporter of STEM to STEAM movement. Read more about my work on mathematics education reform here.
 

 

 

My Family

 

My wife Tabassum and I have three children - our daughters Shakhina and Farzona, and our son Firdavs. My children were early participants in the creation of my mathematical reform, in fact, they were my very first “guinea pigs”. I focused on giving them formal education while my wife focused on their general upbringing. They grew up to study Computer Science and Engineering, and currently live and work (technology and engineering fields) in the USA.

 

If at some point I have taught them, today I am the one learning from my children. No kidding. Currently, my children are helping me with my mathematics education work. In fact, Shakhina started collaborating with me in writing books, which I am very happy about. Lately, my youngest daughter Farzona has also started to support and help me in writing books. 

 

 

 

Interests: My Lifelong Passion for Art

 

Literature

• Dante Alighiery. Divine Comedy. Inspired deep thoughts on humanity.

• Omar Khayyam. The following poem of his always makes me contemplate about life:

    When God mixed my clay, He knew full well

    My future acts, and could each one foretell;

    Without His will no act of mine was wrought;

    Is it then just to punish me in hell?
 

• Sergei Yesenin. His words “Who am I, what am I, merely a dreamer?” are always with me.

 

Classical music

• Chopin. One of the brightest scenes of my life was spending the whole night in the square of Chopin in Warsaw, Poland listening to his music. Chopin's Nocturnes 13 and 14 accompany me my whole life.

• Tchaikovsky. In admiration of the graceful music of his Swan Lake.

 

Visual arts

• Rodin. Always delights me as the best example of expression of beauty.

• Picasso. His simplicity in expressing deep feelings and thoughts.

 

 

 

Philosophical and Mathematical Views

 

Beauty, Humor and Logic save the world!

 

My motto: keys to success are belief, love and hard work. “Without belief, love and hard work you cannot even catch fish from the pond.”

My main formula: the main creator and destroyer of your life - you!

My wishes to others: enjoy the beauty, wisdom, humor, distress and sweetness of life.

My main conclusion about life: the main attribute of life - uncertainty.

 

Human beings are not capable of providing strict definitions to concepts and strict proofs for statements. For example, in mathematics, fundamental notions such as point, line, number, set and function are given without definitions.

 

The property, the existence of parallel lines, is given without proof. At a first glance, this might seem to be a negative side of life. Yet upon further consideration, it appears to be a positive side as well.

 

This is the essence and at the same time the miracle of human life. Uncertainty is the mystery, the magic, the perpetuity of life. This is what makes our life mysterious, adventurous and attractive. We will forever attempt to comprehend life. Glory to the creator, there’s never a dull moment.

 

In real life, everything is arranged in the same way. We do not know, never can know, what is love and what is happiness: we cannot teach people how to live happy, because we do not know what happiness is.

 

Only in a model, and a model is an abstracted, simplified description of life, we can apply strict logical methods. Traditional parts of mathematics - algebra, geometry, calculus and mathematical logic - work rather well here. But real life is composed of events that are extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to define strictly.

 

What should be used more is the modern branch of mathematics - probability theory and mathematical statistics.

 

In real life, strict mathematical logic does not always apply. In order to get closer to real life, we invent more flexible, fuzzy and probabilistic types of logic. And we must, and will, develop our mathematics for entire life. Only long tests or tests in mass may allow approximate computations of behavior of events.

 

Last but not least, I would like to point out that mathematics that comprises all branches of mathematics as a single unit, broadly speaking, is known as information processing.