Statement of Purpose

Anatoli Karpov, former world champion in chess, said one day: chess is my life, but my life is not reduced to chess. I can apply the same words to physics. My father showed me the rules of chess when I was 2 years old. Since then my life was full of chess. I played a lot and even became a champion among pupils of my home town Rustavi. My interests led me to the problems of artificial intellect and the language Prolog. Later, as a student of MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology), I wrote a computer program that played the game "Reversi". Its partner was chosen to be an analogous program of Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft Windows, Games) at its master's level. I can not forget everyone's surprise when my program won 37:27.

But of course, my chief interests are in physics. By the time when I was 13 I had won 2 consecutive Olympiads of young physicists of Georgian Republic. I passed all final exams at my secondary school 3 years earlier, received a certificate of full secondary education and was admitted to the Department of Physics at Tbilisi State University. In recognition of my achievements I was not required to pass entrance exams. I studied there for 2 years and then transferred to MIPT. I will receive Bachelor's degree in June 1996.

I have two main areas of concentration: field theory and condensed matter. I spent 1994/95 academic year in ITEP (Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics) specializing in elementary particles. There I chose a career of a theoretician. To be admitted to the theoretical group at ITEP a student must pass two exams: on quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. I passed the first exam to professor Termartirosyan and I am now preparing for the second.

My specialization in condensed matter began this year when I passed an exam on quantum mechanics to professor Feigelman and was admitted to the theoretical group at Landau Institute. By June 1996 I will have completed one year of courses there. I am now studying magnetism, the theory of metals. Attending the weekly seminar on condensed matter gives me an opportunity to learn more about modern physics. I can mention two areas which became interesting to me, these are mesoscopic phenomena and spin glass. Not long ago I myself presented a review on mesoscopic phenomena at the seminar.

I am very interested in both field theory and condensed matter. That is why I concurrently attend lectures on Condensed Matter Theory and Magnetism and lectures on Quantum Field Theory. In my opinion I have had sufficient training to continue my graduate study in either of these two areas. I would like that my work be concerned both with field theory and condensed matter. So, I might choose something like superconductivity for my Ph.D. dissertation.

Let me list honors that I received: two 1st prizes at two Olympiads of young physicists of Georgian Republic; 1st prize at physics Olympiad among the students of Georgia; 1st prize at physics Olympiad among MIPT students; a reward at the annual MIPT conference on calculation methods; fellowship of the fund "Dar" - Russian organization for support of gifted children; Soros Fellowship - as a Soros Student; 1st degree in chess; a certificate with honors of 7 years of education in music (the piano). In conclusion I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all those achievements in physics I have are due to my interest and ability to learn by independent study. This fact assures me that I will be able to work successfully toward my Ph.D. degree at your University.