Dr. Maxim Lepskiy is an Academician of EUASU, full Professor, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of Social Sciences and Administration at Zaporizhzhia National University. Head of Research Board in Social Forecasting Sociological Association of Ukraine, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Certified VIP Negotiation and Mediation Trainer. Prof. Lepskiy was born in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. In 1993 he graduated from the history department of Zaporizhzhya State University (today Zaporizhzhya National University). During 1993-1996 he was the head of the author's program "School of Survival." He is a founder and director (since 1996) of the First in Ukraine Zaporizhzhya regional center of patriotic education of youth under the Zaporizhzhya regional state administration. In 1997 Prof. Lepskiy defended his Ph.D. thesis in social philosophy on the topic "The correlation between life and death: the problem of survival" in the specialized academic council at ZSU. In 2006 he defended his doctoral dissertation in social philosophy on the topic "The correlation between optimism and pessimism: the problem of social prospect" at the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine. Since 1993 he has been working at ZSU. From June 2004 to January 2019, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Management, ZSU. From January 2005 to March 2015, he was the Head of the Department of Sociology, ZNU. In 2002-2003, he was the head of the Department for Internal Policy of the Zaporizhzhya regional state administration, Deputy Mayor for the activities for the Executive bodies of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, head of the Department for Internal Policy of the City Council.

Since 2003 he has been the Dissertation Council member, and later became the Dissertation Council chairman, Social Philosophy and Philosophy of History, at Zaporizhzhia National University.

Since 2016, he has been the Dissertation Council chairman for the Doctoral Theses Defense - Social Philosophy and Philosophy of History.

The main directions of scientific activity:

• research of social prospects, scenarios, and strategic forecasting;

• qualitative methods in sociology and social forecasting;

• sociology of the city and visual sociology;

• mediation and peacemaking;

• political decision making.

Maxim Lepskiy is the author of 207 works, including 16 monographs, 13 workbooks and two textbooks on social and political forecasting, conflict modeling and resolution, peacemaking and human development, public administration, and local self-government, media space study, 6 copyright certificates; 11 candidates of sciences and 2 doctors of sciences defended under his supervision. He is the organizer and participant of 47 socially-oriented international, all-Ukrainian, and regional projects, particularly UNDP-EU, USAID, the public agency "Swedish Institute", U-LEAD, TEM Europe within the EU Delegation in Ukraine, the Sociological Association of Ukraine, the International Network of Universities University for Peace. He has more than 28 years of experience as a mentor, teacher, trainer, political strategist (since 1994), mediator, and experience in conducting masterclasses, organizing fundamental and applied research.

	Handbook. Fundamentals of strategic forecasting of political situations and processes.     The handbook was prepared by Professors  of the Faculty of Sociology and Management of Zaporizhzhia National University in frameworks of state sponsored study "Sociology of politics: simulation and game modeling and forecasting political situations and processes ". It covers the main issues of strategic forecasting of political situations and processes. The introductory manual is intended for teachers, graduate students, and higher education students, researchers in social philosophy, sociology, political science, social forecasting and anyone interested in modeling and forecasting society's political process.
	Peacebuilding in the conditions of hybrid war in Ukraine Given monograph presents the results of an international expert study on preventive and multilateral diplomacy; establishing, maintaining, and building peace, theories and practices of peacekeeping, implementation of historical analogies of peacekeeping research in military conflicts, and potential scenarios for resolving the military conflict in eastern Ukraine.
	Qualitative methods of social forecasting: methodology, technique, practice. Textbook   The textbook covers the main issues of substantiation and use of qualitative methods of social forecasting: methodological foundations of high-quality individual and group expert methods in social forecasting, especially the use of heuristic expert methods; system-structural heuristic methods; specificity of scenario in strategic forecasting; problems of selection and integration of methods of strategic forecasting. The textbook corresponds to the curriculum of disciplines "Social forecasting", "Social forecasting of territorial development", "Political forecasting".