Kostya Trachenko
School of
Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of
London, email k.trachenko-at-qmul.ac.uk
I did my PhD at Cambridge University and MSc at L'viv
University, Ukraine. I subsequently held a Research Fellowship in Darwin
College, Cambridge, and an EPSRC Advanced Research
Fellowship.
My research interests mostly lie in
theoretical and computational condensed matter physics:
fundamental theory of liquid and supercritical states of
matter, glass transition, glasses, high pressure and
radiation damage effects including in nuclear waste forms
and fusion reactors. I am also interested in links between
field theory and condensed matter physics and links between
fundamental physical constants and system properties. Here are
representative publications in these areas. Related
research is discussed here.
Please get
in touch about a PhD project. My PhD students are
awarded major international prizes,
complete their projects in less than 3
years and receive job offers from
research centers such as Cornell, Oak
Ridge Lab, MIT and Kings College.
I enjoy
working with students and
received a teaching award.
You
will be doing interesting science: our work has been
awarded the top
10 Physics Breakthroughs in 2020 and
the EPSRC-CCP
prize for "outstanding contributions to theory
and modelling of condensed matter phases".
Highlights in news and media:
- A
supercritical step for fundamental physics with green
prospects

- Award of the top
10 Physics World Breakthroughs in 2020
- Upper bound on the speed of sound in the
Economist, ("MaxMach" in the Economist print edition),
Physics
World, Science
News, Sky
News and Daily
Mail
- Viscosity of quark-gluon plasma in Physics
World and Futurism:
"The early Universe was a vast liquid ocean"
- Minimal quantum viscosity in Physics
Today, Physics
World and Cosmos
Magazine
- Vacuum
energy gets flexible - IoP news
- Slow bitumen flow in BBC
Feature Article, New
Scientist and Physics
World. The video abstract is here.
- New understanding of supercritical state in Physics
Today
- Phonon theory of liquid thermodynamics in Physics
World
-
IoP highlight story about the first
glimpse into radiation damage processes inside a fusion
reactor
Animations of atomic motions in liquids,
glasses and radiation damage from molecular
dynamics simulations