Antanas ~ilinskas was born on January 5, 1946 in Lithuania. He graduated with a gold medal from 2nd Kaunas Gymnasium in 1963 and with a distinction diploma of Electrical Engineering from Kaunas University of Technology in 1968. His Ph. D. studies (aspirantur) at Lithuanian Academy of Sciences lasted from 1970 to 1973. The Candidate of Sciences (Ph. D. ) degree in Technical - bernetics (1973) has been received from Kaunas University of Technology. The Doctor of Mathematical Sciences degree (Habilitation, 1985) has been received from St. Petersburg (Leningrad) University. The title Senior Research Fellow (1980) has been conferred by the Presidium of Academy of Sciences, and the title Professor (1989) by Vilnius Pedagogical University. He has been awarded (with V. saltenis and G. Dzemyda) Lithuanian National Award for scientific achievements of 2001 for the research on "Efficient optimization methods and their applications". A. ~ilinskas joined the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics in 1973 starting with a position of junior research associate, worked as a senior - search associate reaching the highest rank of principal researcher which is his main position now. Apart from working in the research institute he was a lecturer at Vilnius Pedagogical University 1986-1988, where he founded a - partment of Informatics in 1988 and held a position of professor and head of this department 1988-1993. He worked later as a professor of this department until 2000.