Rostislav Grigorchuk

Rostislav Ivanovich Grigorchuk, born on February 23, 1953, is a mathematician working in group theory, dynamical systems, geometry and computer science, and a Distinguished Professor in the Mathematics Department of Texas A&M University. He is particularly well known for having constructed, in a 1984 paper, the first example of a finitely generated group of intermediate growth, answering an important problem posed by John Milnor in 1968; this group is now known as the Grigorchuk group and is one of the important objects studied in geometric group theory. He is one of the pioneers of asymptotic group theory, introduced the notion of branch groups, and initiated with collaborators the theory of groups generated by finite Mealy type automata.