I was born in the city of Yaroslavl, Russia in 1963 in the family of a journalist (my father) and an OB/GYN surgeon (my mother). I realized that I wanted to be a doctor when I was in 6th grade. I graduated from high school and was accepted to the Yaroslavl Medical School in 1980. In 1982 I was elected Class President. During my 4th year of studies I was awarded Russian National Medical Merit Scholar designation. I graduated in 1986 Summa cum Laude and went to do an internship in surgery and than worked as a surgeon at the Yaroslavl Regional Hospital. At the same time I worked as a Clinical Instructor in Physiology at the Yaroslavl Medical School. I moved to the United States in 1991. Initially, I started doing research in cardiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of blood clotting at the University of Vermont. My work was part of the Human Genome Project. This work led to 11 publications in major peer-reviewed medical journals, like Blood and Circulation. I started my residency in General Surgery in 1996 at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY and continued my surgical training at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, OH in 1998. I graduated from that program in 2002 with honors. I was recognized as the Best Resident of the program in the same year. I went for a Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH in 2002. I started my private practice in Surgery in 2003 at Lake Health System in Cleveland, Ohio. I am Board-certified in General Surgery. I do General and Trauma Surgery in the same location ever since. In 1992, I started the Russian American Medical Association, which was incorporated as the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2002. RAMA has over 1000 members and does a lot of work for Russian-American community in the United States and works with medical professionals of Russian origin in America, Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. We have multiple medical and surgical exchange projects with Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. In 2008 I started the Russian Cultural Garden of Cleveland – a non-profit that works to preserve the Russian cultural heritage in America. It is now part of the Cultural Gardens Federation of Cleveland. In 2014 I worked as a physician for the Team USA during 22nd Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. In 2015-17 I served as the President of the Lake County Medical Society of Ohio. My wife Irina (we got married in 1983) graduated from the Yaroslavl State University in Yaroslavl, Russia as a computer programmer in 1984. She worked in this capacity for about 20 years. In 2004 she started studying law and graduated with a JD degree from the Cleveland-Marshall Law School in 2007, and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 2008. She now works at her private law firm. My daughter Tatyana lives in Alexandria, VA. After graduating from Ohio State University in Columbus, OH with a degree in Political Science and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, she works for the US Department of Homeland Security as a Lead Policy Expert on cybersecurity. She is married and has two sons and a daughter (and a dog). My son Dmitry also graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in Philosophy and now studies law at the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, NC. He is married and has a daughter. They have three dogs. My parents live in the USA.