I have a B.S. degree in biology (St.Petersburg State University, 1999). Now I'm a master's degree candidate at the Department of Biophysics, St.Petersburg State University. My research work is concentrated on the investigation of stationary dissipative structures formation in colonies of imperfect mycelial fungi. This phenomenon is one of the interesting examples of biological self-organization. I investigate conditions required in order for patterns to appear and explain how changes in fungal environment influence the morphology of the colony, or, in other words, how the system interacts with its environment. Mathematical modeling allows to describe the macroscopic self-organizing behavior exhibited by imperfect fungi under varying experimental conditions.

The investigation of growth patterns of microscopic fungi will be an essential step towards understanding of general mechanisms and laws of biological morphogenesis. Besides, these fungi are among the most aggressive agents causing biodegradation of synthetic carbonaceous materials. Therefore it is rather important to forecast possible ways of fungi development on a certain material. Knowledge of pattern formation basic mechanisms in mycelial fungi colonies will result in purposeful construction of new materials or coverings, i.e. artificial substrates allowing to operate the development of fungi.

Home page: http://fungi.narod.ru