Alexander V. Markov

Who is Alexander V. Markov?

Alexander V. Markov is a Russian biologist, paleontologist, popularizer of science. Prize winner of the main Russian prize for popular science.

Markov graduated from the Moscow State University in 1987. He has been working in the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1987. Doctor of biological sciences, Senior Research Professor of the Paleontological Institute, RAS.

In collaboration with Andrey Korotayev he has demonstrated that a rather simple mathematical model can be developed to describe in a rather accurate way the macrotrends of biological evolution. They have shown that changes in biodiversity through the Phanerozoic correlate much better with hyperbolic model than with exponential and logistic models. The latter models imply that changes in diversity are guided by a first-order positive feedback and/or a negative feedback arising from resource limitation. Hyperbolic model implies a second-order positive feedback. The hyperbolic pattern of the world population growth has been demonstrated by Korotayev to arise from a second-order positive feedback between the population size and the rate of technological growth.