Vladimir Parfenov is PhD, Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology and Software Engineering  of St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, the winner of the prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the area of education, the winner of the prize of the government of the Russian Federation in the area of education, a member of international organizing committee of the world programming championship, director of semifinal competitions in North-Eastern European region, the winner of the  ICPC DeBlasi award in 2009.

Vladimir Parfenov  is one of the leading Russian experts in the area of training of highly qualified specialists in the area of software.

Vladimir Parfenov graduated from St. Petersburg lyceum of physics and mathematics number 239 (in 1966), the Department of Computer Engineering Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics (now - ITMO) (in 1972) and the faculty of mathematics and mechanics of the Leningrad State University (in 1973).

He defended his PhD thesis in 1975; his doctoral thesis was defended by him in 1990. He was elected in 2000 dean of the Faculty of Information Technology and Programming which was organized on his initiative.

V.G. Parfenov took part in the development of devices for space research. He was awarded a medal of academician S. Korolev in1988 for services in this area.

Parfenov is one of the main organizers and creators of national and international contests and online competitions in computer science and programming of students and pupils. V. Parfenov was appointed the director of semifinal competitions of team championship on programming in North-Eastern European region in 1996; he was appointed a member of the international organizing committee of the world programming championship in 2000. Semifinal group which was headed by V. Parfenov became the largest in the world. About 700 teams from more than 250 universities in 11 countries are involved within it annually. These events have become the biggest of all time by geography and the number of participants of student forum of Russia and CIS countries to date. Successful work of V. Parfenov on organizing competitions of programmers in Europe and in the world was marked by professional awards in 2004 ACM-ICPC founder's award and 2009 ICPC DeBlasi award.

An educational project to create a system for search, training and employment gifted in mathematics, physics, computer science and programming of students was started in 1991 at ITMO on the initiative of professors V. Parfenov and V. Vasilyev. The project was received wide acclaim and positive feedback of Russian and foreign specialists.

V.G. Parfenov is one of the founders and major executives which have received worldwide recognition of training center of talented young programmers of ITMO. Students of ITMO won in the semi-finals round of programming six times, and team of ITMO is the first team of  Russian universities which to reached the finals in 1995; they became champions of Russia programming in 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2007; they was  the vice-champions in 2000, 2005 and 2006 .

Students of the Faculty have been reaching the world cup final for thirteen years (since 1996); they won the silver medal in the championship in 2000, the gold medal in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007; they  became absolute champions of the world and Europe on programming in 2004, 2008 and 2009. These results allowed ITMO to take first place in 2008 in the global ranking of universities which based on the results of performances in the world cup for the last five and ten years. It allowed coach of varsity team(he is docent of Department of computer technology, A. Stankevich) to become the most successful coach in the world for the last five years. Team of ITMO, world champion on programming was received by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in May 2004; it was received by first deputy prime minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in June 2007, by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in May 2009.

V. Parfenov contributed to the formation of international brand "Petersburg programmer", which is distinguished by a high level of theoretical knowledge, creative approach and ability to solve difficult non-standard tasks. This brand helped significantly in the promotion of Russian companies, software developers in the world market and the formation of the domestic software industry.

V. Parfenov is laureate of award of the Russian President in the area of education (2003) and the prize of the government of the Russian Federation in the area of education (2008). He was awarded the order of friendship in 2003 for his successful work on the organization of student and school competitions in computer science and programming, for high performance teams of ITMO at the world championships on programming.