The Chebyshev Laboratory was established in December 2010 at St. Petersburg State University under the support of the grant 11.G34.31.0026 of Stanislav Smirnov from the Government of the Russian Federation.
Since August 2013 the activity of the Laboratory is realized with the support of the social investment program of the company “Gazprom Neft” – “Home Towns“*. Since 2014 the Laboratory is supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant №14-21-00035.
The Laboratory conducts research in analysis, algebra, probability theory, mathematical physics and related fields. One of its main goals is involving students and young postdocs to the research process. The Laboratory supports an extensive visitor program, holds numerous seminars and frequent conferences. If you are interested in visiting us, please write to chebyshev.lab@gmail.com.
*The social investment program of the company “Gazprom Neft” “Home Towns” is one of the most prosperous and eminent Russian business initiatives in the area of territorial development. Whether it is small-scale voluntary activities, city festivals or large-scale international festivals – all the projects of the program “Home Towns” resolve specific and unique problems of the regions of Company`s work.
I was lucky to study at Chebyshev Laboratory when I was a PhD student. It is the center of mathematical activity at Saint Petersburg State University. The laboratory provided me an opportunity to concentrate on my research and to learn from other students, faculty and invited visitors. It was extremely interesting to study there and I expanded my mathematical background extensively.
— Alexander Logunov, member for 2011-2015, currently (as of June 2020) Assistant Professor at Princeton University
I am thankful to S. Smirnov for founding Chebyshev Laboratory and supporting young PhD students during our early hard times. Now I better understand how the atmosphere at Chebyshev Laboratory, together with mathematical school in St. Petersburg, strongly influenced developing my career in mathematics and changed the course of events in my life in general.
— Paata Ivanisvili, member for 2011-2013, currently (as of June 2020) Assistant professor at University of California, Irvine
Working in Chebyshev Laboratory helped me in several ways:
1) Thanks to it I have visited many conferences while being a student, which gave me a good overview of what happens in my field well beyond what I could learn from my PhD advisor.
2) It gave me a taste of modern statistical physics physics beyond old St. Petersburg pure math. Now I use some advanced methods from stat physics in my current work.
3) It showed me how a good lab should look like. I have been working in different teams in different areas afterwards and most of them did not have such good atmosphere and organization. It may be that I will have to start my own lab in future at some point — if it happens, I would try to make it similar to Chebyshev Laboratory.
4) It supported me financially without which I would be less likely doing research full time.
— Dmitrii Todorov, member for 2011-2014, currently (as of November 2018) Postdoc at Brown University
Four years spent in the laboratory is a life-changing experience for me: the extreme concentration of the world-known senior mathematicians, persistent young researchers, and diverse seminars make this place a great mathematical center.
—Ilia Nekrasov, member for 2015-2018, currently (as of November 2018) Graduate student at University of Michigan
In 2012 the Chebyshev Laboratory at SPbU held a two-week-long school — the “Saint Petersburg School in Probability and Statistical Physics”. This school was devoted to recent advances in probability and statistical physics and attracted a lot of prominent mathematicians. During the conference, I attended various lectures with great excitement, and it was an eye-opening experience for me. This conference turned out to be pivotal for my future research. I became absolutely fascinated by the beautiful interplay of diverse mathematical tools used in statistical physics. This event also saw my first encounter with Stanislav Smirnov, the 2010 Fields medal laureate and professor at the University of Geneva, who later became my advisor. I was so thrilled by the subject that I decided to change my area of research and start working on the lattice models.
—Marianna Russkikh, member for 2012-2014, currently (as of November 2018) Graduate student at University of Geneva
The Chebyshev Lab was created at the proper moment for Russian mathematical school and myself.
Being a member of laboratory and due to the DFG-RFBR grant I was able to write several works on applications of random fields, this allowed me to understand this area better.
Also the Lab allowed to start new scientific seminars and invite outstanding scientists from abroad. On my opinion this was timely and this helped me to continue development in my profession.
–Elena Shmileva, currently (as of April 2019) Associate Professor at HSE Campus in St. Petersburg / Department of Applied Mathematics and Business Informatics
