Maksym V. Kovalenko (born 1982) is a full professor of inorganic chemistry and the head of the Functional Inorganic Materials group at

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

. A part of the research activities of the group are conducted at

Empa The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa; :de:Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt, German: ''Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt'', :fr:Laboratoire fédéral d'essai des ...

(

Dübendorf Dübendorf is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Uster (district), Uster in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population o ...

). He is working in the fields of

solid-state chemistry Solid-state chemistry, also sometimes referred as materials chemistry, is the study of the Chemical synthesis, synthesis, structure, and properties of solid phase materials. It therefore has a strong overlap with solid-state physics, mineralogy, cr ...

quantum dot Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size with optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles via quantum mechanical effects. They are a central topic i ...

s and other

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

, surface chemistry,

self-assembly Self-assembly is a process in which a disordered system of pre-existing components forms an organized structure or pattern as a consequence of specific, local interactions among the components themselves, without external direction. When the ...

, optical spectroscopy,

optoelectronics Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radi ...

and

energy storage Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an Accumulator (energy), accumulator or Batte ...

Early life and education

Maksym Kovalenko was born in 1982 in southern

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. He grew up in the Ukrainian area of

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

. He studied chemistry at Chernivtsi National University. In 2007, Kovalenko obtained his Ph.D. at the Johannes Kepler University in

Linz, Austria Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiss. During this time, he focused on narrow

band gap In solid-state physics and solid-state chemistry, a band gap, also called a bandgap or energy gap, is an energy range in a solid where no electronic states exist. In graphs of the electronic band structure of solids, the band gap refers to t ...

s, and published several articles on HgTe, SnTe, PbSe as well as iron oxide nanocrystals. A part of these works was carried out at the

Molecular Foundry The Molecular Foundry is a nanoscience user facility located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and is one of five national Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy ...

(

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

, USA).

Academic career and research

After the completion of his Ph.D., he moved to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

as a post-doctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Dmitri Talapin. In 2009, Kovalenko published an article in

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

describing the use of inorganic ligands on colloidal nanocrystals. Such an all-inorganic design of semiconductor nanocrystals had enabled their integration into diverse electronic and optoelectronic devices. In 2011, Kovalenko accepted an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

ship at ETH Zurich in

Zurich, Switzerland Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The urban area was home to 1.45 ...

. Initially, the research group focused on the development of new synthetic approaches for nanocrystals and their utilization in rechargeable batteries and photodetectors. In 2015, the group introduced highly luminescent nanocrystals of cesium lead halide perovskites and shortly thereafter, in 2016–2017, formamidinium lead halide nanocrystals. In 2016, Kovalenko received tenure and became an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at ETH Zurich and continued to lead his research group at both ETH Zurich and Empa. Since then, the research group of Kovalenko has focused on understanding and improving colloidal perovskite nanocrystals, their assembly into long-range ordered superlattices and their exploration as quantum light sources. Additionally, the group continues to investigate the surface chemistry of nanocrystals and novel electrode materials for

Li-ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy d ...

and non-Li battery technologies. The group is increasingly active in the discovery of novel semiconductors and light emitters. In 2018, the group received financial support from the ETH+ Initiative to establish a crystal growth and characterization facility for research purposes as well as for education and training of students. The expertise of the group now also includes single-particle spectroscopy, fabrication of light-emitting diodes and testing materials for hard radiation detection. In August 2020, Kovalenko was promoted to

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

at ETH Zurich.

Additional roles

Kovalenko currently serves as an associate editor for the journal ''

Chemistry of Materials Chemistry of Materials is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1989 by the American Chemical Society. It was founded by Leonard V. Interrante, who was the Editor-in-Chief until 2013. Jillian M. Buriak took over as Editor-in-Chief i ...

''. He has served as the chair of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry (LAC) at ETH Zurich from 2018 to 2019.

Awards and recognition

* Wheland Medal and Lectureship 2023 * Dan Maydan Prize in Nanoscience Research 2021 *

Rössler Prize The Rössler Prize, offered by the ETH#ETH Zurich Foundation, ETH Zurich Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been awarded annually since 2009 to a promising young tenured professor of the ETH Zurich in the middle of an accelerating career.< ...

2019 *Highly Cited Researcher 2019 * Highly Cited Researcher 2018 * ERC Consolidator Grant 2018 * Werner Prize 2016 * Ruzicka Prize 2013 * ERC Starting Grant 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovalenko, Maksym V. 21st-century chemists Academic staff of ETH Zurich Johannes Kepler University Linz alumni Living people 1982 births Chernivtsi University alumni Ukrainian expatriates in Austria Ukrainian expatriates in the United States Ukrainian expatriates in Switzerland 21st-century Ukrainian scientists