Dr. Mikhail B. Piotrovsky
Honorary Chairman
Professor Piotrovsky has served as the Director of the State Hermitage Museum since 1992. He is the son of Boris B. Piotrovsky, the Director of the Museum from 1964 to 1990. Dr. Piotrovsky graduated with honors from the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University in 1967, specializing in Arabic Studies, as well as also attending Cairo University from 1965 to 1966. He worked and did further studies at the Leningrad branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies from 1967 until 1991 before joining the Hermitage. Professor Piotrovsky has taken part in archeological excavations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Yemen and authored more than 200 scholarly works.
A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Arts, he has received numerous honors, including the Woodrow Wilson Award in 2010. He is also a professor at St. Petersburg State University; Chairman of Museums in Russia; Chairman of the Board of the European University in St. Petersburg; and editor-in-chief of The Christian Orient. In 1997, the International Astronomical Union even named a small planet “Piotrovsky” to honor both Boris and Mikhail Piotrovsky for their contributions to the arts and sciences.