Born in 1969 in Moscow, Andrei Okounkov studied at the Moscow State University, from which he received his bachelor degree and his doctorate in mathematics (1995). He taught at University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, and Princeton University and is currently Samuel Eilenberg Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University. Andrei is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship (2000), a Packard Fellowship (2001), the European Mathematical Society Prize (2004), the Fields Medal (2006), and the Compositio Prize (2010). His main research interest is modern mathematical physics.