Abstract. The article reveals the professional biography of Academician Alexander Dynkin, a prominent researcher of contemporary world economy and international relations, the seventh director of IMEMO. He has become the first representative of the post-war generation at the head of the Institute. His civic position is characterized by patriotism with adherence to democratic principles and liberal values. The son of a famous Soviet aircraft engine designer, A. Dynkin planned to continue his father’s career. After completing his studies at the prestigious Moscow Aviation Institute, Dynkin was included in the group of engineers engaged in the development of a project for manned flights to the Moon. When this project was unexpectedly closed at the beginning of 1972, Alexander Dynkin decided to change his profession. He passed the competition for the postgraduate study at IMEMO, where he prepared and in 1976 defended his first dissertation on the topic: “Economic Factors in the Creation and Operation of Civil Aviation Equipment in the United States”. Since that time, his life has become forever linked with IMEMO, where he has grown an outstanding researcher in the economic aspect of modern scientific and technological progress. In 1989, A. Dynkin successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “A New Stage of the Scientific and Technological Revolution in the Capitalist Economy: Economic Content and Implementation Mechanism” at the Academic Council of IMEMO. The problematics, which Alexander Dynkin dealt with, were of particular relevance for the Soviet planned economy which was experiencing deep stagnation. Dynkin and his colleagues tried to find out means of overcoming this stagnation by accelerating scientific and technological progress; they looked for opportunities to adapt the Western experience in this area to Soviet economic realities. In the post-Soviet period, high professional qualities of Alexander Dynkin found a worthy application in economic practice. In 1998, he was invited as an economic advisor to Evgeny Primakov, the Prime Minister of Russia. Having returned to IMEMO a year later, Dynkin continued his scientific research and became an internationally recognized authority in world economy issues. Alexander Dynkin as a researcher has always combined fundamental and applied problems. The development of theoretical and practical aspects of the competitiveness of Russian economy, its integration into the world economy have been an important part of his activities. A. Dynkin proved himself to be not only a prominent researcher, but also an experienced organizer of the research process. Since 1989, he was Deputy Director of IMEMO, and in 2006 he was appointed as a Director of the Institute, which he successfully headed for ten years. Afterwards he became the President of IMEMO. Under his leadership, the Institute has confirmed its status as one of the world’s leading think tanks in the field of contemporary world economy and international relations studies.