He graduated from the Department of Physics of
Leningrad State University. His advisors there were
Vladimir Fock, a physicist, and
Boris Delaunay, a mathematician. In 1933 Aleksandrov worked at the
State Optical Institute (GOI) and at the same time gave lectures at the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of the university. He completed his
Ph.D. in 1935 at the university and later in 1937 — a
D.Sc. dissertation. He became a professor at the university, while also working at
LOMI, the Leningrad Department of the
Steklov Mathematical Institute (now PDMI,
Petersburg Department of the Mathematical Institute). Appointed the
rector of the university in 1952, Aleksandrov remained in this position until 1964. He was the youngest rector in university history, and was fairly popular. One of his main contributions was the attempted move of Leningrad State University to Old Peterhof, which proved unsuccessful. From 1964 to 1986 Aleksandrov lived in
Novosibirsk, heading the Laboratory of
Geometry of the Institute of Mathematics of the
Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences, teaching at
Novosibirsk State University. In 1986 he returned to Leningrad (now
Saint Petersburg) to head the geometry laboratory at LOMI. Aleksandrov's main work was in the study of differential geometry and physics. His work in geometry specifically is said to be second only to Gauss by N. V. Efimov, V. A. Zalgaller and A. V. Pogorelov. == Awards ==