Education:

Positions held:

Research experience:

Research interests:

	Studying spatio-temporal variation of phytoplankton
			I am writing a Ph.D. thesis in the field of oceanography. I am studying influence of hydrophysical and hydrochemical factors on spatio-temporal distribution of Black Sea phytoplankton. For the analysis I use statistical methods and methods based on neural networks approach. As a result of the researches I will plan to obtain quantitative estimations of relations between spatio-temporal variation of Black Sea phytoplankton and physical and chemical oceanographic fields.
	3D modelling of plankton organisms
			Phytoplankton cells live in all Earth waters. They are vitally essential component of a water ecosystem. Shape of phytoplankton cells is very diverse; it varies from simple spherical till complicate geometrical constructions. Also, variation of one species shape depends on physiological state of an organism and on environmental conditions. Important characteristic of phytoplankton cells is their volume and surface area. However tiny dimensions of microalgae strongly hamper their investigation. In planktonology volume and surface area of unicellular algae are calculated with the help of approximation of organisms shape by a set of simple geometrical primitives (sphere, cylinder, cone, etc.). Obviously, in many cases obtained quantitative values will greatly differ from real one. Therefore we create 3D models of phytoplankton cells using our developed technology (Lyakh, et. al., 2001; Lyakh, 2002a).
	Creating and maintenance of marine taxonomic expert systems (TAXEX)
			Taxonomic expert systems for identification of marine organisms (TAXEX) are developed in the Dept. of Ecological Infromatics (Dept. of Biophysical Ecology) since the end of 80th. Identification procedure is based on "question-answer" principle. A user of the system are asked about any feature of identificated organism, then the system, based on known organisms features, determines species, which mutches description in the most extent. Questions are accompanied by illustrations and explanations. I am working on this project since 1999. I finalize the TAXEX project: I combine different parts of TAXEX (text, identification tables, images) into the whole expert system and take part in TAXEX testing and maintenance.

Major fields of training:

• Mathematics and informatics in oceanographic researches
• Oceanographic databases development
• Computational sciences in biology
• Computer software development
• Web design

Summary of qualifications:

• Mathematics:
Analysis, Geometry, Statistics, Linear algebra, etc.
• Programming languages:
C/C++, Visual C++, Delphi, OpenGL
• Database Management Systems:
Visual FoxPro, Paradox, MS Access
• Web Development:
HTML, DHTML, CSS, SSI, JavaScript
• Graphics:
3D Max, CorelDraw, PaintShop Pro, PhotoShop
• Miscellaneous:
Mathcad, Mathematica, MS Excel

Awards:

Grants:

Membership:

• Member of Community of Young Scientists (IBSS, Ukraine)
• Member of Eco-Ethics International Union (EEUI)

Participation in International Symposiums:

• The Colour of Ocean Data - International Symposium on Oceanographic Data and Information Management with Special Attention to Biologicl Data. Brussels, Belgium, 2002.
• International Conference of Computational Science (ICCS 2002). Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2002.
• Eighteenth European Workshop on Computational Geometry (EEWCG 2002). Institute of Informatics, Warsaw University, Poland, 2002.
• Information Technology in Biodiversity Research - II International Symposium. Zoological Institute RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2001.
• 17^th European Workshop on Computational Geometry (CG 2001). Institute of Computer Sciences, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany, 2001.
• Intelectualization of Infromation Processing. Tavrical National University, Simferopol, Ukraine, 2000.

Recent publications:

• Lyakh A. M. (2002a) The free form deformation of phytoplankton models. Lecture notes in computer science, v. 2331, part 3. P. 194-201. (download PDF)
• Tokarev Yu.N., S.G. Lelekov, V.V. Melnikov, A.M. Lyakh (2002b) Perspectives of using computer technologies in the field of taxonomy. Ecologiya morya (Ecology of the Sea), v.61. P. 95-98 (in Russian).
• Lyakh A.M., A.M. Suvorov, Yu.V. Bryantseva (2002c) Review of quantitative methods of phytoplankton registration. Systemy controlya okruzhaushey sredy (Systems of Environment Controlling). Sevastopol: MHI. P. 425-430 (in Russian).
• Lyakh A.M., V.S. Mukhanov, R.B. Kemp (2001) The Virtual Cell Project for the investigation of microalgal morphology and dispersity of natural phytoplankton. Abstracts of 17^th European Workshop on Computational Geometry (CG 2001). Institute of Computer Sciences, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany, 2001. P. 57-58.
• Lyakh A.M. (2000a) Methods of plankton communities state estimation: Creation of a system of hydrobiological information complex analysis. Ecologiya morya (Ecology of the Sea), v.53. P. 89-91 (in Russian).
• Lyakh A.M. (2000b) Applicability of neural networks to estimation of Black Sea phytoplankton primary production. Ecologiya morya (Ecology of the Sea), v.52. P. 87-89 (in Russian).