Genrich Altshuller

Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller (Ге́нрих Сау́лович Альтшу́ллер) (October 15, 1926 - September 24, 1998), penname Genrikh Altov was born in Tashkent. He created the Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch (Theory of Solving Inventive Problems or TRIZ), in English called the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS). Working as a clerk in a patent office, Altshuller embarked on finding some generic rules that would explain creation of new, inventive, patentable ideas. During one of Joseph Stalin's purges he was imprisoned for political reasons and continued his studies with his fellow inmates while in a labor camp. After his release, Altshuller settled in Baku, Azerbaijan.

He worked as a journalist, essayist, and a science fiction writer. He published his science fiction under the pseudonym Genrikh Altov (Генрих Альтов), often in collaboration with his wife, Valentina Zhuravleva.

A full-fledged TRIZ movement developed among Russian engineers and other technically inclined people by the 1970s, and Altshuller played the role of its intellectual leader. He lectured at TRIZ congresses, published articles and books and corresponded with various TRIZ practitioners. He became the founding member and president of the Russian TRIZ Association. A number of his close friends and students have become the most prominent thinkers and teachers of the movement, popularizing TRIZ in Russia and abroad.

For a long time he published articles on TRIZ, with examples and exercises, in the Soviet popular science magazine Izobretatel i Ratsionalizator (Inventor and Innovator).

Altshuller left Baku in the early 1990s amidst post-Soviet-breakup violence in the area. He settled in Petrozavodsk (Karelia in north-western Russia) with his wife and granddaughter. As a result, Petrozavodsk became the center of the TRIZ Association.

He died from complications of Parkinson's disease in 1998.

TRIZ
The tools developed under Altshuller's leadership are:
 * 40 Inventive Principles 1946-1971,
 * ARIZ 1959-1985,
 * Separation Principles 1946-1985,
 * Substance-Field Analysis (Su-Field Analysis) 1973-1981,
 * 77 Standard Solutions 1977-1985,
 * Natural Effects (Scientific Effects) 1970-1980,
 * Patterns of Evolution 1975-1980...

The different schools for TRIZ and individual practitioners have continued to improve and add to the methodology.

Science fiction published as Genrich Altov

 * Икар и Дедал 1958
 * Легенды о звездных капитанах 1961
 * Опаляющий разум 1968
 * Создан для бури 1970
 * Летящие по Вселенной 2002, with Valentina Zhuravleva