Search by tag «ITMO Fellowship» 65 results

  • From Reindeer Herders to Treating Diseases: Bioinformatician Anna Popenko on Studying Gut Microbiome

    Gut microbiome is the largest of its kind in the human body, and its microorganisms are directly connected to the appearance and development of many diseases. We talked to ITMO Fellow and bioinformatician Anna Popenko about why microbiome research is important and how it can be beneficial. At ITMO, Dr. Popenko heads the group studying the connection between gut microbiome, the environment a person lives in, and their health.

    27.03.2024

  • ITMO Fellow Muhammad Ali Abbasi Talks New 2D Nanomaterials for Wastewater Remediation, Discovering St. Petersburg, and Learning Russian

    A native of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Abbasi previously worked in his home country, as well as Germany, but he chose Russia as the place to build his scientific career. Today, he is working at ITMO, developing a new class of 2D nanomaterials for the remediation of industrial and domestic wastewater from emerging organic pollutants (EOCs) – low concentrations of medicines and cosmetic products. However, modern studies indicate the potential toxicity and carcinogenic impact of such pollutants on human and aquatic life. In this interview, he also talks about the commonalities between St. Petersburg and Pakistan, the benefits of learning Russian as an Urdu speaker, and the process of doing research at the intersection of physics and chemistry.

    30.01.2024

  • Research is an Ongoing Process: ITMO Fellow Dmitry Glazov on Studying Dark Matter

    Scientists at ITMO’s Faculty of Physics are conducting atomic and molecular experiments, which are essential to understanding the universe, finding dark matter, and building the nuclear clock. In this article, Dmitry Glazov, a laureate of the ITMO Fellowship program, weighs in on the merits of such experiments and explains why studying atoms and molecules is vital to the discovery of dark matter.

    23.01.2024

  • Every Project Is a New Challenge: ITMO Fellow Iuliia Melchakova Talks Molecular Design, Spintronics, and Studying in South Korea

    From developing new drugs to predicting molecular properties and establishing fast information transfer – to accomplish these tasks, scientists turn to molecular design. This field is also studied at ITMO, and for this article we spoke with Iuliia Melchakova, an ITMO Fellow, to learn more about its applications.

    17.11.2023

  • ITMO Fellowship Stories: Kirill Bronnikov on Mie-Tronics, Resonance Effects, and the Future of Photonics

    According to Future Market Insights, the value of the global photonics market is expected to surpass $900 billion in 2023 and reach $1.6 trillion by 2033. Photonics has found its application in computer science, medicine, manufacturing, and quantum computing. In this interview, Kirill Bronnikov, a laureate of ITMO Fellowship program’s Postdoc track, who moved from Novosibirsk to study dielectric Mie-tronics at ITMO University, speaks about the prospects of the field and photonics-related research at ITMO.

    20.10.2023

  • ITMO Fellowship Stories: Physicist Ksenia Chichay on Spintronics, Data-Related Advances, and Academic Career

    Back in 2008, a team of IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) scientists demonstrated the first racetrack memory device, which was meant to be as fast as RAM and as affordable as hard drives yet more capacious and less energy-demanding than the two. Since then, multiple researchers have worked on the technology, including specialists from ITMO University. In this article, Ksenia Chichay, a physicist and a laureate of the ITMO Fellowship program, explains how such studies are organized, what spintronics is, and how it can help researchers boost data recording, storage, and transmission.

    10.05.2023

  • Explore the Universe or Deliver Memes: ITMO Fellow Alisa Chaikovskaya Talks Particle Physics

    Physics of elementary particles explores the tiniest building blocks of the universe to explain how it developed and came into being. One recent discovery in the field was the Higgs boson, which contributed to our understanding of what happened in the universe after the Big Bang. In order to solve the many remaining mysteries of particle physics, scientists develop theoretical models. ITMO Fellow Alisa Chaikovskaya is one such scientist – in this interview, we asked her about her work, spin particles, and their applications.

    28.03.2023

  • Natural Waste to Slow Down Climate Change: ITMO Fellow Randa Ghonim on Cleaning Oil Spills With Green Technologies

    Oil spills produce billions’ worth of damage every year, as well as irredeemably damage marine ecosystems. The existing methods used to clean up oil spills are expensive, ineffective, and sometimes produce harmful byproducts for the environment. Randa Ghonim, a researcher at the City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-City), Egypt, believes that biodegradable natural waste could be used effectively to clean up oil spills. She conducted part of the work on this project at ITMO University as an ITMO Fellow. How can we use rice straw to get rid of oil spills? Read on to find out.

    06.02.2023

  • ITMO Fellow Eugene Smirnov On Colloid Chemistry Applications: From Space Telescopes to FoodTech

    Remember the James Webb Telescope? The one that’s recently discovered its first exoplanet? It’s an impressive machine that has 18 mirrors covered with an ultrathin layer of gold. It takes 3.5 years of polishing to produce one such mirror, which then has to be linked to the others and delivered to the orbit. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just make a liquid mirror out of nanoparticles? Sounds like a dream, but colloid chemistry can get us closer to it. What other possibilities does it open? We asked ITMO Fellow Eugene Smirnov, a scientist with international experience from Switzerland, Germany, and China, who now heads a research group at ITMO.

    30.01.2023

  • ITMO Fellow Ahmed Eldeeb on Working in Russia and Becoming a PI at 28

    Ahmed Eldeeb decided to become a scientist when he was still at school. Though his family wanted him to pursue a career in engineering, medicine, or programming, the future researcher was so passionate about biotechnology and DNA/RNA technologies that, eventually, his dream brought him to ITMO University. Now the head of a frontier laboratory at the university’s SCAMT Institute, he develops DNA robots for cancer gene therapy and viral diagnostics. In this interview, Ahmed Eldeeb gives an insight into what it's like to build a lab from scratch and lead a team of 23 as a young PI.

    29.12.2022