Andrei Fursenko

Andrei Aleksandrovich Fursenko (; born 17 July 1949) is a Russian politician, scientist and businessman. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation. He was the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation from 2004 to 2012. He is considered to be a member of the Saint Petersburg political groups under Vladimir Putin's presidency. Family and education His father Aleksandr Fursenko (1927–2008) was a renowned historian, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His brother Sergey Fursenko (b. 1954) is a technician, businessman, TV producer and the president of the football club Zenit (St. Petersburg). Andrei Fursenko entered the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Leningrad State University in 1966 and graduated from there in 1971. In the university he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which he left in August 1991 as it had been banned. Career From 1971 to 1991 he worked in Leningrad at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute as a junior researcher, senior researcher, the chief of the Computer Department (1985–1989), deputy director for science (1987–1991).