President awards the prize for science and innovation to St Petersburg University physicist Leonid Skripnikov

The award ceremony was held on the eve of Russian Science Day. The Presidential Prize was awarded to Leonid Skripnikov for a series of papers promoting the theory of the electronic structure of heavy element compounds in search of new physics and studies of the nucleus structure.

Receiving the Presidential Prize is the highest degree of recognition for a young scientist in Russia. It means that what we do is interesting and significant for our entire society.

Leonid Skripnikov, Associate Professor at St Petersburg University, winner of the 2021 Presidential Prize for Science and Innovation for Young Scientists

The research is devoted to the development of theoretical methods for the most accurate prediction of the properties of compounds of heavy elements. They are not measurable, but without knowledge of which the results of complex scientific experiments on molecules and crystals in search of new physics cannot be explained. Leonid Skripnikov proposed a new and unique approach to the calculation of specific properties in crystals, based on the concept of a two-step calculation of such properties. This enabled the young scientist to simplify the task considerably without reducing the accuracy of calculations. The approach is recognised and successfully used in the treatment of the experiment on the study of the interaction of the nucleus with the particles considered to be dark matter.

The Russian Presidential Prize for Science and Innovation has been awarded annually to young scientists since 2008. Laureates are awarded for significant contribution to: the development of national science; the development of new equipment and technologies that ensure innovative development of the economy and social sphere; and the strengthening of the country's defence capability.

Leonid Skripnikov said that he became interested in this topic back in 2007, when he was studying quantum chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry of St Petersburg University. 'The research lies at the junction of several branches of science and enables us to: approach the deep foundations of nature; understand whether nature is symmetrical; and build a bridge between experiments on molecules and the physics of elementary particles,' said the scientist. ‘The scientific direction in the study of atomic and molecular systems to find the effect of breaking the symmetry of fundamental interactions was established in our University by Professor Leonti Labzowskiy.’

You can read more about the significance of the research by Leonid Skripnikov and the other award winners on the President's official information resource.

Leonid Skripnikov graduated with honours from St Petersburg University with a degree in Chemistry in 2009 and was enrolled in postgraduate studies at B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute. He successfully defended his candidate’s thesis in theoretical physics in 2012. Today, the scientist teaches at his alma mater as part of the team of the Department of Quantum Mechanics. He also works on research, including under grants from the Russian Science Foundation, at B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute. His research interests include relativistic and correlation effects in molecules with heavy atoms, parity non-conservation, and variation of fundamental physical constants.

In 2017, Leonid Skripnikov was awarded the First Prize of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Physics of St Petersburg University for scientific works for young scientists. In 2019, he was included in the IUPAC Periodic Table of Younger Chemists. In 2020, he became the winner of three awards at once: the Kurchatov Prize; Governor's Prize of the Leningrad Region; and the Prize of the Academic Council of St Petersburg University for the contribution to science of young researchers.