The laboratory was founded in 1961 by Aleksandr Alekseyevich Borovkov, now full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but then still a young scientist, pupil of Academician A.N. Kolmogorov who had recommended the recent PhD to S.L.Sobolev for work in the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Academy. Since then A.A. Borovkov is the permanent leader and organizer of a scientific team which constitutes a probabilistic school well known in the scientific world. At present, there work in the laboratory the Doctors of Sciences I.S. Borisov, S.G. Foss, B.I. Lotov, A.A. Mogul'skii, A.I. Sakhanenko, S.A. Utev, V.V. Yurinskii, the PhD's D.A. Korshunov, M.S. Sgibnev. Almost all of them are pupils of the Siberian School. At different times, there worked in the laboratory the Doctors of Sciences S.V. Nagaev, B.A. Rogozin, the PhD L.Ya. Savel'ev. Pupils of this team now work in many other scientific centers in Russia and abroad.
The main activities of the laboratory refer to the following fundamental areas of research in probability theory and mathematical statistics:
In each of these areas deep results have been obtained anticipating as a rule the corresponding research done in other countries. A.A. Borovkov is the author of eight monographs and textbooks, most of them translated into foreign languages and published abroad. He was awarded the 1979 State Prize of the USSR for a series of papers on asymptotic methods in probability theory. For the last 25 years, research scientists of the laboratory of probability theory and mathematical statistics published over five hundred papers in scientific journals both at home and abroad. Among the awards received by the laboratory team there are winner diplomas obtained in various competitions for best fundamental scientific papers organized by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All the team members regularly take part in international scientific conferences, often as members of program committees and invited lecturers, visit other countries on invitation for joint research work on various projects. There exists continuous cooperation with probabilistic scientific schools in Moscow, St. Petersberg, Kiev, Tashkent, Omsk and other cities. In the Institute of Mathematics there is a specialized Scientific Council conferring doctoral degrees in the field of probability theory and mathematical statistics. Research scientists of the laboratory are associate editors of many Russian and foreign mathematical journals.
In the laboratory is held on a regular basis a scientific seminar on probability theory and mathematical statistics (weekly on Thursdays, beginning at ten thirty in the morning, room 417, Institute of Mathematics), over a thousand sessions have been held since its beginning. The team headed by A.A. Borovkov represents the core of the Probability and Statistics Department at Novosibirsk University, ensuring lecturing on basic and optional courses, conducting seminars, advising students working on their diplomas, Master's degrees, PhD theses, and other competitors. During the elapsed time more than 250 specialists of higher qualification in the area of probability theory and mathematical statistics have been trained.