Head of the Laboratory

Laboratory staff

The laboratory includes 11 staff members and 3 postgraduate students:

• 2 Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
• 1 leading research fellow;
• 4 senior research fellows;
• 3 research fellows;
• 1 junior research fellow.

Staff contacts (in Russian)

Biographical information

S. P. Gromov was born in 1953 and graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1975. In 1978, he defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation at the same faculty; its results were recognised as a scientific discovery in 1980 (diploma of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology).

In 1998, he defended his Doctor of Sciences dissertation at the N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has held the title of professor since 2005.

Professor Gromov received the A. M. Butlerov Award of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2006. He was elected a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2008 (Division of Nanotechnology and Information Technologies, specialty “Nanotechnology”) and has been a member of its Division of Chemistry and Materials Sciences (Section of Chemical Sciences) since 2013.

He served as Acting Director of the Photochemistry Center from 2015. He currently heads the Photochemistry Center at the “Crystallography and Photonics” Research Centre of the Kurchatov Institute and is a professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

In 2018, he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in Science and Technology for the development of photoactive supramolecular devices and machines. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Bureau of the Division of Chemistry and Materials Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2023, he received the N. D. Zelinsky Award of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2025, he has headed the Section of Supramolecular Systems Chemistry of the Scientific Council for Organic Chemistry.

Under Professor Gromov’s supervision, 14 Candidate of Sciences and 2 Doctor of Sciences dissertations have been defended. His research interests include supramolecular chemistry, organic chemistry, and photochemistry.

He is the author of 1,393 scientific works, including:

• 364 articles;
• 34 reviews in journals;
• 7 books and book chapters;
• 3 textbooks;
• 29 patents and inventor’s certificates.

According to Web of Science, his works have received 5,176 citations and his h-index is 36.

Professor Gromov is a member of three doctoral dissertation councils — at the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University, the N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the RAS, and the MIREA – Russian Technological University — as well as of the RAS Scientific Councils on Organic Chemistry and Chemical Physics and of the editorial boards of the journals High Energy Chemistry and Russian Chemical Bulletin.

Research interests and fields

Research interests

• Development of methods for the synthesis and self-assembly of supramolecular systems and nanoscale architectures with specified photochemical and photophysical properties based on dyes, photochromic compounds, and organic luminophores; design of photoswitchable supramolecular devices, photocontrolled molecular machines, and photoactive supramolecular systems.
• Synthesis and transformations of heterocycles, including crown ethers, pyridines, pyrimidines, triazines, indoles, indolizines, isoquinolines, quinolines, and quinazolines.

Current research fields

• Synthesis of dienones, ketocyanine dyes, distyrylbenzenes, and mono-, tri-, penta-, and heptamethine dyes; preparation of naphthalene derivatives by ring transformation of isoquinoline derivatives and investigation of their fluorescent properties and complexation with cavitands.
• Development of crown-containing chromo- and fluoroionophores for optical supramolecular chemosensors; investigation of their complexation with ammonium and metal cations, including heavy and transition metals.
• Investigation of self-assembly of crown-containing and model unsaturated compounds into supramolecular structures in the presence of metal ions, through hydrogen bonding, stacking interactions, and [2+2] photocycloaddition in solution and in the solid state.
• Development of synthetic methods for N-methylbenzoazacrown compounds through macrocycle transformation of benzocrown ethers and investigation of their complexation with metal and ammonium ions.

Key achievements

The laboratory develops photoactive supramolecular systems, molecular switches, molecular machines, optical sensors, and new synthetic methods for photoactive and crown-containing compounds.

Read about the laboratory’s principal achievements.

Publications

Complete publication lists for Professor Gromov are available in the following formats:

• Selected publications, 2025
• Complete publication list, 2025
• Reviews and books and book chapters

Awards and prizes

Head of the Photochemistry Center, Corresponding Member of the RAS, Prof. Sergei P. Gromov

• N. D. Zelinsky Award of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2023) for the series of works “A crystallographic approach to topochemical [2 + 2] photocycloaddition reactions of unsaturated compounds with single-crystal retention”. (view)
• Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in Science and Technology (2018) for the development of photoactive supramolecular devices and machines. ( Photo)
• A. M. Butlerov Award of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2006) for the series of works “Molecular design of photosensitive supramolecular systems based on crown-containing unsaturated compounds”. (view)
• USSR scientific discovery “The phenomenon of isomerization recyclization of nitrogen heteroaromatic compounds” (view)

A. I. Vedernikov, Leading Research Fellow, PhD in Chemistry

• Prize and medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences for young scientists for achievements in chemistry (2002).
• Prize and medal of the European Academy for young scientists of Russia in the “Chemistry” section (2001).

M. V. Churakova, PhD in Chemistry

• Prize and medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences for students of Russian higher education institutions for achievements in chemistry (2003).

Education and research opportunities

The laboratory offers research opportunities for bachelor’s, master’s, postgraduate students, and early-career researchers in:

1. Supramolecular chemistry: self-assembly, spatial structure, and properties of photoactive supramolecular structures, photoswitchable devices, and photocontrolled molecular machines and systems.
2. Organic chemistry: development of methods for preparing photoactive compounds and crown compounds.

Postgraduate study

Postgraduate education is available in the following specialties:

• 1.4.3 — Organic Chemistry;
• 1.4.4 — Physical Chemistry.

Accommodation is available for students from other cities.

Dissertations

Fourteen Candidate of Sciences and two Doctor of Sciences dissertations have been defended under Professor Gromov’s supervision. The full list (in Russian) is available on the Russian version of this page.

Funding sources of the laboratory (2022–2025)

State research assignment and a grant of the Russian Science Foundation.

Collaboration (2022–2025)

1. Faculty of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University
2. Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics and Medicinal Chemistry of the RAS
3. N. S. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the RAS
4. N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the RAS
5. Durham University, United Kingdom

Equipment

• Cary 4000 spectrophotometer

  

• Specord 250 Plus spectrophotometer

  

• Agilent 8453 spectrophotometer

  

• Agilent Cary Eclipse spectrofluorimeter

  

• Varian Cary Eclipse spectrofluorimeter

  

• Shimadzu RF-5301 spectrofluorimeter

  

• FluoTime 300 fluorescence lifetime spectrometer

  

• Laser flash photolysis setup

  

• Lamp photolysis setup

  

• Buchi C-601/C-615 medium-pressure gradient flash chromatograph

  

• Waters 600E high-performance liquid chromatograph

  

• Bruker DRX-500 NMR spectrometer

  

• Bruker SMART APEX-II CCD diffractometer