Sergii Fomin
(A Brief Biographical Sketch)
Sergii Petrovych Fomin – Leading Scientific Fellow at the Akhiezer Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Scientific Center "Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology" (NSC KIPT), PhD, Senior Researcher, Associate Professor of the Akhiezer Department of Physics of the Nucleus and High Energies of the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
Sergii Fomin was born in Kharkiv on June 19, 1954. In 1977 he graduated from the School of Physics and Technology of Kharkiv State University, and since that moment he works at the NSC KIPT.
In 1984 he defended his PhD thesis on the topic "Elastic scattering, bremsstahlung and pair production in crystals at high energies". In 1995 he received the academic title Senior Researcher in the specialty "Theoretical Physics".
His scientific interests are quantum electrodynamics, interaction of high-energy particles with matter, innovative nuclear energy systems. According to the results of the research, more than 150 papers were published in scientific journals and collections (h-index - 17), monography “Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal Effect”, Cambridge Scientific Publishers, 2005 (co-authored with A.I. Akhiezer and N.F. Shul’ga). More than 100 reports were made at international conferences.
Among the most significant results:
- Theoretical prediction and creation of a quantitative theory of the suppression effect of ultrarelativistic electron radiation in a thin layer of matter (co-authored with M.F. Shul’ga, 1978). After experimental confirmation of the existence of the effect at SLAC experiment E-146 (Stanford, USA, 1995-1999) and at CERN international collaboration NA63 (Geneva, Switzerland, 2005-2010), in the scientific literature it was called the Ternovskii-Shul'ga-Fomin effect;
- Development of the physical concept of a promising fast reactor operating in the nuclear burning wave mode, also known as the Traveling Wave Reactor or CANDLE (in collaboration with Y.P. Melnyk, V.V. Pylypenko, N.F. Shul’ga). A special mechanism of negative reactivity feedback has been established, which provides the property of "intrinsic safety" of such a reactor. The feasibility of using mixed thorium-uranium fuel in such a reactor has been proposed and proven.
In 2012 Dr. Sergii Fomin was awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology for the series of works "Dynamics of High-Energy Particle Beams in Crystalline Structures, Control of Beam Parameters and Gamma Radiation Properties".
He prepared and delivered courses of lectures "Passage of high energy particles through matter" and "Physics of nuclear reactors" at the School of Physics and Technology at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. He was the supervisor of several Master theses and PhD thesis.
Over the years, as a visiting researcher, Dr. S. Fomin has worked at such scientific centers as the Collège de France (Paris, France), the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Lyon (France), the universities of Aarhus (Denmark), Uppsala (Sweden), Ferrara (Italy), lectured at the Collège de France (Paris, France), the University of Hiroshima (Japan), Copernicus University (Ferrara, Italy), the Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago, USA), Chalmers University (Gothenburg, Sweden), the Laboratory of Two Infinities named after Irene Joliot-Curie (Orsay, France), at the International Schools of High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics.
Since 2010, Sergii Fomin has been the representative of Ukraine in the Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (TWG-FR IAEA), he was a head of several work projects within the framework of TWG-FR.
In 2015, he was elected Vice-Director of the International Associated Laboratory (France-Ukraine) "Development of Detector Systems for Accelerator Experiments and Technologies for Accelerator Physics" (LIA IDEATE), within the framework of which several joint scientific projects were carried out and regular winter and summer International Schools in High Energy Physics and Medical Physics were organized, including the annual Trans-European School TES-HEP.
Since 2022, Dr. S. Fomin has been working as a visiting researcher at the Deutsches Elektronisches Synchrotron (DESY, Hamburg, Germany). Since 2024, he has been the scientific supervisor of the joint German-Ukrainian (DESY-KIPT) project "Pilot study of crystalline extraction of electrons with an energy of 6 GeV in DESY" with the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
In 2022-2025, Sergii Fomin was the representative of Ukraine in the EURIZON Program, within the framework of which grant support for Ukrainian scientists in Ukraine (EUR 4.5 million) was introduced. A scheme was also organized to collect and deliver equipment and devices in the form of humanitarian aid from European scientific centers with the aim of restoring the damage to Ukraine's research infrastructure caused by Russian aggression.
Since 2022, Sergii Fomin has been the representative of Ukraine in the Program Committee of EURATOM-Fission. He also leads a group of researchers from the NSC KIPT as part of the European consortium under the EURATOM project TRESURE for the development of a Generation IV fast reactor ALLEGRO with a helium coolant.
Since 2025, he has been Ukraine's representative in the Research Infrastructure For Future (RIFF) project of the HORIZON Europe program to restore Ukraine's research infrastructure and integrate it into the European one.