Alexey A. Kovalev graduated (2002) from Samara National Research University, majoring in applied mathematics. He received his doctorate in physics and math in 2012. He is a senior researcher at the Laser Measurements Laboratory of the IPSI branch of the FSRC “Crystallography and Photonics”, RAS. He is a co-author of more than two hundred scientific papers. His current research interests are mathematical diffraction theory and photonic crystal devices.