[1] In 1990, he graduated with honors from the Physical Chemistry Department of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys.

In 1990-1992, he studied at the postgraduate in same institute, where he defended his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Physico-Mathematical Sciences on "Heat transfer interacting electrons in superconductors and normal metals".

In 2007, he became rector of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys and additional President of the Black Sea Universities Network.

He held this position till 21 May 2012, when he was appointed to the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet.

[2] On 19 August 2016 Livanov was replaced in the government with Olga Yurievna Vasilieva[3] and appointed special representative of the president on trade and economic relations with Ukraine.