Natalya Soboleva

Like most successful business owners, Natalya Soboleva started with a vision. From the moment she touched her first computer in 1990, the young physics professor dreamed of using computers in her teaching. Six years later, Soboleva directs twenty employees producing interactive educational software for students of all ages. Her firm, Physicon, works with American and European partners on software products that are distributed in Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, the United States, and Russia.

“I didn’t know anything about business when we started,” said the 41-year-old Soboleva recently. “But I got interested in how the business of producing software works.”

At first, Soboleva turned to professional programmers to develop the prototype for Physicon’s “Physics on the Computer” college course. But she quickly discovered that programmers lack the specialized knowledge of physics needed to develop software. With the support of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Soboleva began teaching her own physics students to use computers.