Anatoliy I. Kulak
Born September 5, 1954, Minsk, Republic of Belarus
Professor, Doctor habil. (Chemistry), Director of the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Minsk, Republic of Belarus.
Professional background:
- 1976 – graduated from Belarusian State University (BSU);
- 1980 – defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled ‘Study of electrochemical and photoelectrochemical processes on titanium dioxide films’;
- 1992–1995 – Senior Researcher, Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Problems, BSU;
- 1995–2016 – Deputy Director for Research, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (IGIC NAS of Belarus), Head of laboratory of polyphosphoric compounds;
- 2016 – till present – Director of the IGIC NAS of Belarus;
- 1992 till present– professor, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, BSU.
Research interests:
- synthesis and research of nanostructured materials (bioinorganic materials, photo- and electrocatalysts, functionalized coatings);
- structure and physicochemical properties of molecularly organized hybrid materials;
- nontraditional methods for synthesis of diamond and diamond-like materials;
- powerful pulsed (electrical, acoustic, thermal, electromagnetic) effects on electrode systems;
- photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic and photovoltaic transformations of solar energy;
- sonochemistry and sonoelectrochemistry.
Key research results:
- a novel research area was put forward related to photoelectrochemistry of semiconducting heterogenic structures and semiconductors with pronounced energetic and structural heterogeneity;
- basing on results of studying charge transfer processes in semiconducting heterostructures, an electronic theory of photocatalysis and electrocatalysis was substantiated, relied on the effects of dynamic splitting of Fermi level in energetically heterogeneous systems in the presence of lateral electronic exchange between components with different levels of structural organization;
- a new class of electro- and photocatalysts was proposed with potential of use in photocatalytic systems for deep purification of water and gas media, in electrochemical sensors, metal-hydride storage systems and photoelectrochemical transducers;
- development of nanostructured composite materials with high optical selectivity and energy conversion efficiency for solar collectors and photovoltaic systems;
- designing technology for producing nanostructured substances of calcium-phosphorus-containing compositions, new methods for producing nanostructured phosphate and oxide-hydroxide bioinorganic materials;
- creating new means of chemical protection of paper securities and document securities.
Membership in organizations:
- Chairman of Chemistry and Earth Sciences department of the Belarusian Foundation for Basic Research;
- member of the State Expert Council for chemical, pharmaceutical and microbiological industries;
- member of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Republic of Belarus in Chemistry;
- member of the Council for the defense of doctoral dissertations at the IGIC NAS of Belarus;
- deputy Head of the Joint Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, BSU and NAS of Belarus.
Author (co-author) of 320 research publications, including 4 monographs and more than 40 patents, including 25 patents of the Republic of Belarus. Awarded the Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences in memory of Academician N.M. Emanuel for achievements in the field of chemical physics (2013).
