Misha Verbitsky

Mikhail "Misha" Verbitsky (Russian: Ми́ша Верби́цкий, born June 20, 1969, in Moscow) is a Russian mathematician. He is primarily known to the general public as a controversial critic, political activist and independent music publisher. Verbitsky graduated from a mathematics class at the Moscow State School 57 in 1986, and has been active in mathematics since then. His principal area of interest in mathematics is differential geometry, especially geometry of hyperkähler manifolds and locally conformally Kähler manifolds. He proved an analogue of the global Torelli theorem for hyperkähler manifolds and the mirror conjecture in hyperkähler case. He also contributed to the theory of Hodge structures. His PhD thesis, titled Cohomology of compact Hyperkaehler Manifolds, was defended in 1995 at Harvard University under the supervision of David Kazhdan. He has held different positions, most prominently at the Independent University of Moscow (since 1996), the University of Glasgow (2002–2007), the University of Tokyo (since 2008), the HSE Faculty of Mathematics (since 2010), and the Free University of Brussels (2015–2016). Since 2017 he has worked at the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro. Apart from mathematical research, Verbitsky was greatly involved in public activities, especially after his graduation from Harvard with a PhD.