Andrey Filinsky

Andrey Filinsky: interview of 06.10.2015

- About quantum mechanics. When I was a university student, it was purposed that I should work at the Department of Optics, because, as it was told, I had clever mind, and good hands too, to set up experiments. However, I always wanted to study theoretical physics, maybe because I’m too lazy. What I liked in theoretical physics is that everything was depending on me, rather than on the settings: I had some paper, a pen and brains, that’s it. There were four departments to choose from: gases and plasma were not much appealing, nor was experimental particle cosmology, mathematical physics required exceptional pedantry, but I’m not a pure pedant. Thus, quantum mechanics remained. Also, I looked for something more sophisticated and interesting: everything is evident with a single particle; if there are two particles, it is less evident, but still clear. Thus, I focused on three-body coulombian systems where a mesotron collides with a deuterium molecule, and a meso-molecule is created for an instant of time. Then the mesotron bucks up and continues its flight… Generally speaking, it was a dream about controlled fusion reaction, about a new energy source etc.

This was in 1980s. By that time I realized that, besides pen, paper and brains, I need a computer. Computer time must nave been obtained (for instance, at Steklov Mathematical Institute or somewhere else): initially I operated a BESM-6, after than there were more serious computers. In 1992 a brought a PC from Singapure, and it was a kind of a challenge to obtain licensed software. In 1992 my computations were world’s best in terms of accuracy, though I used a plain PC, while the advanced world utilized super-computers like Cray which worth million dollars. As for me, I was sitting in my kitchen with coffee and baked rolls… As I told, theoretical physics has its bright sides. Unfortunately, after a while I was beaten. And a little bit later I was again somewhere ahead of somebody else. Then I was left behind again. And after that I was seized with my illness, and a new series of computations still waits to be finally tuned up, a small bit of work remained.

- About teaching. I teach students from 1982. My students in the Makarov Academy for Naval Engineering were very clever, and I could invent really challenging tasks: they solved them anyway. Indeed, they were grumbling that similar tasks were offered at the Seoul’s International Student Competition, and I ask to solve them as a plain homework. But it was interesting for them.

This can sound as a commonplace remark, but physics shall be taught to make your students think. Indeed, with the help of physics we learn how to find solutions in most optimal way. Theoretical mechanics (I respect it, though do not like it much) and, moreover, applied disciplines, such like structural performance of materials, teach how to obtain solutions from ready-to-go formulas. They are rather about precision and accuracy. In the field of physics one needs to choose a model for task-solving, build up a reasonable theory, make some theoretical calculations and realize if works or fails. Then, if it is necessary and possible, the model is further improved and brought closer to real world…

- About music. When I was a post-graduate student, lectures were in the evenings and not everyday. Thus, I built my schedule so as to study music twice a week. As a child I was taught to play a piano, and then the wife of composer Boris Arkhimandritov who was a singer taught me to sing and trained my voice. At university I neglected all these. But in the summer before my post-graduate course, when I was at the university sports camp, I heard a girl singing (she wanted to become a conservatorium student), and get back to music. In fact, I was playing six hours daily: from Rakhmaninov to Liszt, from Chopin to Ravel and Debussy. I was eager but didn’t manage to play a Skriabin’s piano recital, and still regret that I didn’t. After that it was a long pause again. And recently I opened the piano and played for a while. And felt good…

- About painting. Also, I took painting lessons twice a week. My enthusiasm was so strong that I wanted to quit university and become a student of Repin Academy of Arts. I went to museums, looked and tried to realize where the colors are coming from, and tried the most paradoxical combinations. Once I was failing to show twilight air under an arch, and tried whatever I could to paint the right air. When the dawn finally broke, I used blue, a blatant blue, and eventually everything looked as it should look.

When I was a student, I had a side job as a seasonal tourist guide in Peterhof. It was especially pleasant to have a better look at the exhibits which are fenced by a rope so that the visitors could not come closer. At the villas there were miniatures painted with China ink on elephant ivory. Amazing artwork! I tried to realize how it was possible to create them and learned that these miniatures were painted by people with very bad eyes, with strong myopia. They would not need lenses or microscopes, they simply brought the picture close to their eyes and pained it with a thin brush. I used to have -10 diopters myopia (now it is much better with artificial lenses), so this story raised special emotions in me.

- About illness. I was on sick leave throughout the year before last, and returned to work in the past year. But that time I received supportive chemotherapy once a month and could work. After a relapse in January chemotherapy is on weekly basis. It is good that I receive this treatment on Thursdays, because complications occur during the weekend when there is less work and I can simply lie down. And after that I need to get up anyway.

The most important thing I realized when I got ill is that nothing can be planned. Nobody knows what would happen and, thus, I’m trying to a make shorter-term plans: for tomorrow, or day after tomorrow, but no further. I played in a university basketball team where I knew that every second counts, and rapidly learned that the game must be carried through. If we are losing the game now, that does not mean that the whole game shall be lost. Even if we lost, this does not mean that we could not win the next game. And if you throw the ball during the last second, it still can reach the hoop. The game shall be played through whatever is in its end. If you are conquered, you’ll cry. But so far the game goes on.

Andrey Filinsky needs marrow bone transplantation. 18 000 EUR shall be paid to find a donor in the international database. http://advita.ru/AFilin1.php