Background

Nerkrasov was born in Moscow, Russia and attended the Moscow State 57th School, graduating in 1995. He went on to graduate with honors from Moscow Physical Technical Institute in 1995. Nekrasov did his graduate work at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, receiving his PhD in 1996. His dissertation was on Four Dimensional Holomorphic Theories and his adviser was the noted string theorist David Gross

David Gross

David Jonathan Gross is an American particle physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is currently the director and holder of the Frederick W...

.

Following completion of his PhD he was a junior fellow at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 from 1996–1999, and was a Robert. H. Dicke Fellow, Princeton University from 1999-2000. From 1999-2005 he was associated as a Program Coordinator and General Member at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara. KITP is one of the most renowned institutes for theoretical physics in the world. KITP programs bring theorists in physics and related fields together to work together on topics at...

 of the University of California Santa Barbara, among other positions. Since 2000 he has been a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques

The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques is a French institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics...

. During 2010 he was a visitor at the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics

C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics

The C. N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics is a research center at Stony Brook University. In 1965, it was the vision of then University President J.S. Toll and Physics Department chair T.A...

 and Simons Center for Geometry and Physics

Simons Center for Geometry and Physics

The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is a center for theoretical physics and mathematics at Stony Brook University in New York. The focus of the center is mathematical physics and the interface of geometry and physics. It was founded in 2007 by a gift from the James and Marilyn Simons...

 at Stony Brook University.

Research

Nekrasov is known for his work on topological string theory

Topological string theory

In theoretical physics, topological string theory is a simplified version of string theory. The operators in topological string theory represent the algebra of operators in the full string theory that preserve a certain amount of supersymmetry...

 and ADHM construction

ADHM construction

The ADHM construction or monad construction is the construction of all instantons using method of linear algebra by Michael Atiyah, Vladimir G. Drinfel'd, Nigel. J. Hitchin, Yuri I...

. For his contributions he received the Hermann Weyl Prize in 2004.