*Figovsky Oleg was born in Moscow in 1940 in typical Jewish intelligentsia family. He started to work at the age of 17 and studied at this time in Open Civil Engineering Institute. Before his finished such education he made his first invention in Materials Engineering. At the age 20 Figovsky became a scientific leader of the research project. Later on the basic research of this project has been transferred into a technology to build a novel coating of the airdrome for the first USSR space shuttle named "Buran".

The main area of scientific interests of Figovsky Oleg is development of composite materials based on polymer, silicate and other matrixes, their advanced technology and increasing their service properties under extreme conditions (radiation, strong aggressive media etc.). In this area he have received his Ph.D. degree (Moscow, 1971) and D.Sc. degree (Moscow, 1990) in Materials Engineering. He was also elected to the position of scientific professor (Moscow, 1980) in Civil Engineering. In 1981 Prof. Figovky was heading the Nonmetallic Department of Interbranch Scientific & Technical Research Complex "Anticorr", where he had established a first scientific school on nonmetallic materials corrosion behavior. During this period he proposed an advanced theory of producing materials, which increased their protective properties during exposure in aggressive media, and on the base of this theory he created a novel class of additives for polymer materials.

Working mostly in the field of elaboration of special composite materials Prof. Figovsky has invented a significant number of composite materials for home application, for example, the well known adhesive named "Bustilat", widely used for gluing up different finishing and flooring materials. 27 chemical plants in USSR produced this adhesive. He also invented many of the new road covering materials, including the first non-bitumen "color asphalt" which was used not only in USSR but in West Europe as well. At this time Prof. Figovsky elaborated a few novel composite materials for nuclear industry application.

His scientific activities were in 70^th and 80^th years also combined with teaching. He gave lectures on Materials Engineering in Moscow Civil Engineering Institute and Moscow Institute of Steels & Alloys. Prof. Figovsky had published in this period 7 books, including such handbooks as "Handbook of glues and adhesive mastics for civil engineering" and "Anticorrosive service for industrial plant". In 1986 he was invited to assume a position of the deputy of director and Head of fundamental research department to All-Union Corrosion Research Institute (Moscow), where he carried out a lot of investigation on the theory and technology of advanced corrosion resistant composite materials. He was elected as editor-in-chief of the journal "Corrosion Protection and Durability of Equipment & Structures" (Moscow) in 1990 and continued in this for another 3 years after emigration to Israel.

During his work in USSR Prof. Figovsky has published more than 200 scientific publications and more than 450 inventions, but many of them under the conditions of "classified" status. About 2/3 of his never have seen the commercial market. Several licenses on his inventions were sold to the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and Poland. Prof. Figovsky independent of his political status was elected as a first deputy of Chairman of nonmetallic materials & advanced protection methods section of Interbranch Corrosion Protection Council of State Plan Committee, State Science & Technique Committee and Academy of Science (USSR) in 1982.

From 1991 Prof. Figovsky lives in Haifa, Israel and continues his scientific activity, but without using typical Israeli Universities forms. He established a few of start-up research companies; he is a Scientific Director of the private Israeli Research Center "Polymate". In 90^th years he has elaborated a few patented advanced composite materials; on the base of such elaboration 2 new plants will be built in Israel in the next year. Just for last 3 years he has published 28 scientific articles in leading journals (in English) and applied for 17 patents to USA, Japan, Canada, Europe and Israel. Prof. Figovsky combines his scientific activity at the IRC "Polymate" with management activity as a vice-president and scientific director of the American investment and technology transfer company "Eurotech, Ltd." His new resent elaborations are in the novel composite materials based on polybutadiene crosslinked matrix, coatings, adhesives and sealants based on nonisocyanate polyurethanes and reinforced materials based on quaternary ammonium alkali soluble silicates.

Prof. Figovsky was elected as a vice-president of Israeli association of scientist-newcomers (1995) and as a foreign member of Russian Academy of A&B Sciences (1995) and of Russian Engineering Academy (2001); he is also the editor-in-chief of the journal "Scientific Israel - Technological Advantages" and the President of Israel Inventors' Association (1999). He is also member of NACE-international (1992) and many other scientific societies. Prof. Figovsky is married, have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. His hobby is classical music and ballet. His biography was published in Who's Why in the World (2001) and Who's Why in Science and Technology (2001-2002).