About

My name is Yuri Panchul. I am an engineer, entrepreneur, horticulturalist, journalist and father of three children. I am a Ukrainian-American and my wife Sayaka is Japanese-American. We have three children - Elizabeth, Albert and Anthony. We live in San Francisco Bay Area.

Engineering

I got some publicity in the area of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) as CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of a Silicon Valley company called C Level Design, which I founded back in 1996 and which was sold to a large company called Synopsys back in 2001. Right now I am working in a company called Denali Software, helping companies like Intel and Apple to design their microchips.

I was studying in one of the best schools in Ukraine - Kiev Natural Science Lyceum and in one of the best universities in Russia - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In addition to being a founder of C Level Design, I was working in Creative Labs (1994), Mentor Graphics (1996), Synopsys (2001), Denali (2004), and in Russian-American company Cognitive Technology Corporation (1991).

Horticulture

I studied horticulture in Foothill College, California, where I also went through the whole biology and organic chemistry program, getting a degree in biology. I have a collection of more than 100 Camellia sasanqua cultivars, many related species and hybrids. I maintain website www.sazanka.org about these plants. I hybridize them and grow my own seedlings. I am a member of The International Camellia Society, American Camellia Society, San Francisco Peninsula Camellia Society and The Camellia Society of Santa Clara County.

Gardening and nature journalism

My articles appeared in leading Russian horticulture magazines ‘Tsvetovodstvo’ (”Цветоводство”, “Ornamental Horticulture”) and “V Mire Rasteniy” (”В Мире Растений”, “The World of Plants”). I also helped journalist Lili Singer from Los Angeles Times to write her article about sasanquas, that was published back in 2006. In addition, my photo picture of sasanqua ‘Yuletide’ was published back in 2007 in San Francisco Chronicle.

Popular science and political writing

I write popular science articles for a major Russian magazine ‘The New Times’ (”Новое Время”). I also maintain several political websites, including anti-Putin website www.puten.org and www.kuraev.org.

Family

My wife Sayaka is a Japanese-American. She spent first 20 years of her life in Kyoto, Tokyo and Chiba. Sayaka came to the United States as an art student, studying oil painting. First she studied in Foothill College, then she transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with an art degree:

We met in 1997:

We got married back in October 1998:

This is a recent picture my family and my friend Shen Yinchun 沈荫椿, a Chinese-American working on a new book about camellias (on the photo’s left). The picture is made back in November 2007:

This is a photo picture of our garden, made in November 2007: