Oleg Viro

Who is Oleg Viro?

Oleg Viro is a mathematician in the fields of topology and algebraic geometry, most notably real algebraic geometry, tropical geometry and knot theory.

Viro's main invention in algebraic geometry is the "patchworking" technique, which allows real algebraic varieties to be constructed by a sort of "cut and paste" method. Using this technique, Viro was able to complete the isotopy classification of non-singular plane projective curves of degree 7. The patchworking technique was one of the fundamental ideas which motivated the development of tropical geometry. In topology, Viro is most known for his joint work with Vladimir Turaev, in which the Turaev-Viro invariants and related topological quantum field theory notions were introduced.

Viro was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1983 and the European Congress of Mathematicians in 2000. He is a recipient of the Goran Gustafsson Prize from the Swedish government.

Viro studied at the Leningrad State University where he received Ph.D. degree in 1974; his advisor was Vladimir Rokhlin. Viro taught from 1973 until 1991 at Leningrad State University. Since 1986 he is a member of the Saint Petersburg Department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics. In 1992-1997, Viro was a F. B. Jones chair professor in Topology at the University of California, Riverside.