Yuri Popkov, in full Yuri Solomonovich Popkov, was born in 1937. In 1960, after graduating from Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), he joined the Institute of Automation and Remote Control, the USSR Academy of Sciences (nowadays, Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences), and became an employee of Ya.Z. Tsypkin’s Laboratory. Tsypkin was his teacher and determined the first topic to be studied, namely, optimal control problems. Their solutions underlaid the candidate’s dissertation in engineering, defended by Popkov in 1964.

His further research was connected with the identification and control of nonlinear systems; six years later, Popkov defended his doctoral dissertation in engineering.

In 1972, Popkov’s R&D activities substantially changed due to numerous discussions with Tsypkin. The focus of his scientific interests shifted towards the description and control of macrosystems. He considered a new range of problems and developed new identification and control methods.

In 1976, S.V. Emelyanov invited Popkov to All-Union Research Institute for Systems Study (VNIISI, the USSR Academy of Sciences). Nowadays, this is the Institute for Systems Analysis, the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISA RAS). In the Institute, Popkov joined the Laboratory of Macrosystems Dynamics. In 1985, Popkov became Head of the Department of Macrosystems Modelling and Control at VNIISI. From 1990 to 2002, he was Vice Director of Science at ISA RAS. In 2000, Popkov was elected Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; in 2002, he was appointed Director of ISA RAS. In 2017, Popkov was elected Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Through all those years, he has been actively engaged in scientific work. His research interests include:

• a macrosystems approach to the mathematical description of dynamic systems of deterministic and stochastic nature;
• the macrosystems models of equilibrium and non-equilibrium states;
• accurate methods for studying macrosystems characteristics (equilibria, stability, bifurcation points, and parametric sensitivity);
• approximate methods for studying macrosystems characteristics implemented in a computer environment based on modern information technologies;
• applications of the developed models and methods in urban and regional planning;
• analysis of large transport systems;
• chemical kinetics problems;
• dynamic processes in biological systems;
• complex image restoration.

In recent years, Popkov proposed a new concept of machine learning based on randomization and entropy as the optimality criterion. Together with students, he developed design principles for various randomized models, including randomized neural networks. Original algorithms were also developed to optimize the models based on real data by maximizing information entropy as an uncertainty measure.

Since 1963, in addition to R&D works, Popkov has been an active tutor. In 1974, he became Professor at the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation (MIREA). From 1992 until the present time, Popkov has been Professor and Head of the Department of System Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT); from 1996 until the present time, Professor at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Moscow State University; from 2005 until the present time, the Head of the Department of System Analysis at the Higher School of Economics. Today, his students include 46 Candidates and 26 Doctors of Sciences.

Popkov is the author of 15 monographs and over 240 papers in peer-reviewed Russian and foreign journals. He is a member of the editorial board of Automation and Remote Control and the Editor-in-Chief of Information Technologies and Computer Systems. Popkov’s main monographs are as follows:

1. Entropy Randomization in Machine Learning, CRC Press, 2023. – 381p. (coauthors A.Yu. Popkov and Yu.A. Dubnov);
2. Teoriya makrosistem i ee prilozheniya. Lektsionnye zametki (Theory of Macrosystems and Its Applications. Lecture Notes), Moscow: LENAND, 2021. – 336 p.;
3. Randomizirovannoe mashinnoe obuchenie pri ogranichennykh naborakh dannykh: ot empiricheskoi veroyatnosti k entropiinoi randomizatsii (Randomized Machine Learning under Limited Data Sets: From Empirical Probability to Entropy Randomization), Moscow: LENAND, 2019. – 320 p. (coauthors A.Yu. Popkov and Yu.A. Dubnov);
4. Mathematical Demoeconomy: Integrating Demographic and Economic Approach, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014. – 515 p.;
5. Teoriya makrosistem. Ravnovesnye modeli (Theory of Macrosystems. Equilibrium Models), Moscow: LIBROKOM, 2013. – 320 p.;
6. Matematicheskaya demoekonomika: Makrosistemnyi podkhod (Mathematical Demoeconomy: A Macrosystems Approach), Moscow: LENAND, 2013. – 560 p.;
7. Makrosistemnye modeli prostranstvennoi ekonomiki (Macrosystem Models of Spatial Economics), Moscow: KomKniga, 2008. – 240 p.;
8. Macrosystems Theory and its Application, Springer, 1995. – 340 p.;
9. Statisticheskaya teoriya avtomaticheskikh sistem s dinamicheskoi chastotno-impulsnoi modulyatsiei (Statistical Theory of Automatic Systems with Dynamic Frequency-Pulse Modulation), Moscow: Nauka, 1988. – 256 p. (coauthors K.Sh. Asaubaev and A.A. Ashimov);
10. Sistemnyi analiz i problemy razvitiya gorodov (Systems Analysis and Urban Development Problems), Moscow: Nauka, 1983. – 512 p. (coauthors A.E. Gutnov, M.V. Posokhin, and B.L. Shmul’yan);
11. Teoriya nelineinykh impul’snykh sistem (Theory of Nonlinear Impulse Systems), Moscow: Nauka, 1973. – 416 p. (coauthor Ya.Z. Tsypkin).

Many books are presented in the Institute’s database:
https://www.ipu.ru/d7ipu/books_library_grid?combine=Попков

His main journal papers are as follows:

1. Popkov, Yu.S., Randomization and Entropy in Machine Learning and Data Processing, Dokl. Math., 2022, vol. 105, pp. 135–157. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064562422030073
2. Popkov, Yu.S., Controlled Positive Dynamic Systems with an Entropy Operator: Fundamentals of the Theory and Applications, Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, no. 20, art. no. 2585.
3. Popkov, Yu.S., Multiplicative Algorithms for Determining Positive Solutions of Nonlinear Equations, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 1996, vol. 69, pp. 27–37.
4. Popkov, Yu.S., A New Class of Dynamic Macrosystems Models with Self-reproduction, Environment and Planning A, 1989, vol. 21, pp. 739–751.
5. Popkov, Yu.S., Locally Stationary Models of Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Macrosystems with Self-reproduction, Dokl. Math., 1988, vol. 33, no. 11, pp. 790–791.

The list of journal papers by Popkov is available at:
https://www.mathnet.ru/php/person.phtml?&personid=41644&option_lang=eng

His publications (including inventions) can be also found at:
https://elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=7024&pubrole=100&show_refs=1&show_option=0

Browse the Institute’s database as well:
https://www.ipu.ru/pubs?combine=Попков+Ю.С.

In addition, see the Wikipedia page devoted to Popkov:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Попков,_Юрий_Соломонович

Scopus Author ID: 7006921474