Is there a correlation between expertise in mathematics and proficiency as a computer programmer?

- Nikolai Durov is a Russian programmer and mathematician the co-founder of Telegram.

- He is the elder brother of Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram Messenger.

- Nikolai showed exceptional intellectual abilities at a young age, reportedly reading at an adult level by age three and solving cubic equations by age eight.

- He achieved notable success in mathematics competitions, winning gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

- Additionally, he earned three silver medals and one gold medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics between 1995 and 1998.

- Alongside his friend Andrey Lopatin, Durov was part of the Saint Petersburg State University ACM team, which won the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2000 and 2001.

- He obtained his first PhD from Saint Petersburg State University in 2005 - Continuing his academic pursuits, he earned a second PhD from the University of Bonn in 2007 .

- Durov contributed to mathematics through his introduction of commutative

- He holds the position of senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Algebra and Number Theory at the St Petersburg Department of Steklov Institute of Mathematics of Russian Academy of Sciences.