by Zack Almquist

      The Math department seems to grow and shrink every year; one of this year's new recruits is Alexander Polishchuk. Born in Moscow, Russia in 1971. Polishchuk Spent the bulk of his young life in Moscow, he even attended Moscow State University. After completing his undergraduate degree, Polishchuk decided that he wanted to pursue the theory side mathematics--contemplating his options he settled on the USA as the country best suited to supporting his long-term goals. Polishchuk attended Graduate school at Harvard University; under the tutelage of Kazhdan, he wrote his Doctoral Thesis "Biextensions, Weil representations on Derived Categories, and Theta-Functions." He graduated with his doctorate from Harvard in 1996. He is currently working in the field of Algebraic Geometry and Mathematical Physics.
      Polishchuk is married and has two daughters, 10 and 2 respectively. His wife works in our own Chemistry department. 
Polishchuk enjoys music (he plays piano and guitar) and the pursuit of foreign languages--currently he speaks Russian, English, French, and Spanish. In the area of music he prefers classical styles such as baroque. He also likes the Brazilian music Bossa Nova. His favorite director is Milos Forman; favorite movies include Amadeus, Cold Comfort Farm, and O Brother Where Art Thou. He enjoys the writings of Tolkien,  Murakami,  and that of modernist Russian poets.
    Currently Polishchuk teaches math 256 and 315. His webpage is

        That all said, when I first met Polishchuk his office was filled with frantic students - midterm time--he was polite, but quite occupied, I set up a meeting with him a little while later and booked it. An hour and half later I was wandering my way into his office once again. After knocking on his door and being let in I sat down to interview  Polishchuk. This was my first time meeting the new faculty member--so I of course took in his office, a little bare. "Newly occupied" if you will, but at the same time it contained all the  comforts of a math professors room: a white board covered in symbols with the message "Never Erase" clearly screwed in at the top; a computer with his current research being typed up; and a few shelves of math texts--which of course contained Spivak's Calculus. That all being said Polishchuk was very accommodating and friendly . He gave me the impression of being someone I would like to take a class from--which to be honest is I think about the highest praise I can give, so with that I will take my leave.

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