Oleksandr Zelenskyy

Oleksandr Semenovych Zelenskyy was born in Kryvyi Rih, Soviet Ukraine, on 23 December 1947. He is of Jewish origin.^[4][5][6] He is married to Rymma Zelenska (born 16 September 1950). He is the father of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (born 1978).^[7][8]

His father, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served in the Red Army's 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division during World War II.^[9] Semyon's father and three brothers were killed in the Holocaust.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Oleksandr Zelenskyy earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Kryvyi Rih State University in 1972. In 1983, he defended his dissertation at the Moscow State Mining University, titled "Automated calculation of iron ore reserves in the ICS quarry." Zelenskyy has been the head of the Kryvyi Rih State University's Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware ever since 1995.^[14] Zelenskyy used his prior scientific research to create an automated mining management system for Erdenet, a joint Mongolian-Russian company which develops one of the world's largest copper-molybdenum deposits. He worked with the company for over 20 years.