Dr Alexander Ryzhenkov was awarded the Diploma of Economics and Mathematics at Novosibirsk State University in 1975. Dr Ryzhenkov spent some years at the Department of Political Economy, and in 1982 completed a dissertation on the regularities of private consumption under modern capitalism. He worked at the Austrian Institute for Economic Research during 1986 and 1987, and subsequently carried out projects on technological innovations and economic institutions at the universities of both Mannheim and Bremen. Dr Ryzhenkov worked at Arthur D Little International in Wiesbaden, Germany, during 1993, and as modeller of an operational policy for sustainable development at the Worcester Polytechnical Institute, in the USA, during 1999. His scientific results have formed the basis of lectures at the Novosibirsk State University, in Siberia, where he currently works, and have been presented at several international conferences and published in international journals.