Igor Kliakhandler

Igor Kliakhandler, a former Michigan Technological University mathematics faculty member, is the recipient of this year's Honorary Alumni Award.

Kliakhandler was born in Moscow, Russia in 1966. He graduated from the Moscow Oil and Gas Institute in 1983 and started his PhD studies there in 1988. He then emigrated with his family to Israel in 1991 and began his PhD at Tel-Aviv University under the guidance of Gregory Sivashinsky. He received his PhD in Applied Mathematics in 1997 from Tel-Aviv University.

He held positions at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Northwestern University before joining Michigan Tech's Department of Mathematical Sciences as an assistant professor in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and left the University in 2007 to work in the energy sector in Houston.

He manages a group of companies that trade electric power across US, and is involved in a few start-up projects. Igor remained fond of Michigan Tech and its Math Department.

Kliakhandler provides a generous gift to host the Kliakhandler Conference, an annual event at Michigan Tech to stimulate research activity in the mathematical sciences.

In all things, he says he values human curiosity and personal integrity. "Risk-taking, combined with forward planning, is critical for personal and business success", he said.