Career
He is most notable for the creation of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, better known by its Russia acronym TRIZ. He founded the Azerbaijan Public Institute for Inventive Creation, and was the first President of the TRIZ Association. He also wrote science fiction under the pen-name Genrikh Altov. Working as a clerk in a patent office, Altshuller embarked on finding some generic rules that would explain creation of new, inventive, patentable ideas.
He eventually created the Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadach (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving or TRIZ)).
After his release, Altshuller settled in Baku, Azerbaijan. A full-fledged TRIZ movement developed among Soviet engineers and other technically inclined people by the 1970s, and Altshuller played the role of its intellectual leader.
He lectured at TRIZ congresses, published articles and books and corresponded with various TRIZ practitioners. He became the founding member and president of the Russian TRIZ Association.
A number of his close friends and students have become the most prominent thinkers and teachers of the movement, popularizing TRIZ in Russia and abroad.
Foreign a long time he published articles on TRIZ, with examples and exercises, in the Soviet popular science magazine Izobretatel i Ratsionalizator (Inventor and Innovator). Altshuller left Baku in the early 1990s amidst post-Soviet-breakup violence in the area. As a result, Petrozavodsk became the center of the TRIZ Association.
He died from complications of Parkinson"s disease in 1998.
Science fiction published as Genrich Altov
Икар и Дедал 1958 (Icarus and Daedalus)
Легенды о звездных капитанах 1961 (Legends of Starship Captains)
Опаляющий разум 1968 (Scorching Mind)
Создан для бури 1970 (Made for the Storm)
Летящие по Вселенной 2002, with Valentina Zhuravleva (They Who Fly Through Space).
