Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sergeev (born August 2, 1955, in the urban-type settlement of Buturlino, Gorky Region) is a Russian physicist specializing in laser physics, femtosecond optics, plasma physics, and biophotonics. He is a full member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2016) and served as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 2017 to 2022. A native of Nizhny Novgorod Region (then Gorky Region), he lives and works in Nizhny Novgorod.[1]

Education and the start of his scientific career

In 1977 he graduated from the Faculty of Radiophysics of Gorky State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky with a degree in radiophysics. In the same year he joined the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Nizhny Novgorod as a research trainee. In 1979 he became a junior researcher, and in 1985 a senior researcher. In 1982 he defended his candidate's dissertation in physics and mathematics, and in 2000 his doctoral dissertation, titled "Nonlinear Wave Processes in the Generation of Ultrashort Optical Pulses and the Interaction of Strong Optical Fields with Matter."[4]

He subsequently held the positions of head of the Laboratory of Ultrafast Phenomena (1991–1994), head of the Department of Ultrafast Phenomena (1994–2001), director of the Division of Nonlinear Dynamics and Optics and deputy director of the institute (2001–2012), and first deputy director for research (2012–2015). In 2015 he became head of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and since 2017 he has been its chief researcher.[4] Since 2022 he has been the scientific director of the National Center for Physics and Mathematics in Sarov.[4]

Scientific work

Sergeev is the founder of a leading scientific school of the Russian Federation, "Femtosecond Optics, Nonlinear Dynamics of Optical Systems, and Highly Sensitive Optical Measurements." Under his leadership, the most powerful petawatt laser complex in Russia was built at the Institute of Applied Physics, and new ways of using femtosecond radiation for materials processing and medicine were developed.[4] He heads the group of Russian scientists in the international gravitational-wave detection project LIGO (USA).[4]

He is the author or co-author of more than 350 scientific works, including "Toward an Analytical Theory of Laser Illuminators" (1980), "From Femtosecond to Attosecond Pulses" (1999), "A Terawatt Femtosecond Titanium-Sapphire Laser Complex" (2001), "A 100-Terawatt Femtosecond Laser Based on Parametric Amplification" (2005), and "Horizons of Petawatt Laser Complexes" (2011).[4] Since 1991 he has been a professor at Lobachevsky University.[4]

President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2017–2022)

In May 2017, Sergeev was nominated as a candidate for President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In September, on the eve of the vote, he addressed the general assembly of academicians with a speech on the state of Russian science and a program for its development, which included, among other things, an increase in funding of 60 billion rubles. On September 26, 2017, in the first round he received 681 votes out of 1,596, beating his closest rival, Robert Nigmatulin, scientific director of the Institute of Oceanology, by 405 votes. In the second round he received 1,045 votes against Nigmatulin's 412. On September 27, by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he was confirmed in the post for a term of five years.[1]

In 2013, he joined the informal "July 1" club, which brought together scientists who disagreed with the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).[1] In February 2022, he became head of the RAS Council on Regional Policy. In July 2022, the RAS Presidium nominated four candidates in the election of the academy's new president: the incumbent president Sergeev, Academician-Secretary of the Nanotechnology Division Gennady Krasnikov, Director of the Institute of Thermophysics of the Siberian Branch of the RAS Dmitry Markovich, and Robert Nigmatulin. On September 1, 2022, Sergeev proposed forming a permanent analytical body to liaise with law enforcement agencies in cases of criminal prosecution of scientists. On September 19, 2022, he withdrew his candidacy, throwing his support behind Dmitry Markovich.[1] Since 2022, he has remained a member of the RAS Presidium.[4]

Academy Memberships and Awards

Sergeev has been a corresponding member of the RAS since 2003 and a full academician in the Division of Physical Sciences since 2016.[4] He is an Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2017). He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (2017), the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (2018), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019).[4] He is an Honorary Doctor of Lomonosov Moscow State University (2019).[4]

State and international awards: laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in Science and Technology (1999), Order of Honor (2006), Government of the Russian Federation Prize in Science and Technology (2012), Gruber Cosmology Prize as part of the LIGO collaboration (2016), Officer of the Order of Academic Palms (France, 2018), UNESCO international medal "For Contribution to the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies" (2018), Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 4th class (2020).[4]

Sources

  1. Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Honorary Citizens of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Summary page (archive)
  2. Kommersant (Volga Region) — What Alexander Sergeev Is Known For (archive)
  3. TASS (archive)
  4. pozneronline.ru — Pozner — Pozner Online (archive)
  5. knowprof.ru — Effective Education
  6. mitp.ru — ITPZ (archive)