Vladislav Blatov Signs Contract with Chinese University

Polytech Professor to Conduct Research in Materials Science

Vladislav Blatov, Head of the Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry and Director of the International Research Center for Theoretical Materials Science, continues to strengthen long-standing collaborations with colleagues in China. In early March, Blatov signed a three-year contract as a visiting professor with Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China.

“Under the contract, I will supervise students, graduate students, and postdocs at the university, participate in joint research projects and conferences, publish results in high-ranking scientific journals, and contribute to the development of theoretical materials science there,” Blatov explained.

On March 7, Yawen Li defended a master’s thesis at the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University, co-supervised by Blatov. The thesis focused on modeling crystal structures of new solid electrolytes for batteries and calculating their useful properties.

On March 13, Blatov visited Peking University, where he delivered a lecture on “Using Topological Methods to Analyze Crystal Structures.” He also led a workshop on the ToposPro software suite for crystal structure analysis. Developed by Samara Polytech researchers, ToposPro is an automated tool containing data on all known scientific substances. Today, it has over 10,000 registered licenses worldwide.

“This shows that our methods are used globally wherever new materials are being developed or researched,” Blatov said. “If you look at the map of ToposPro users, you can get a clear picture of the growth of theoretical materials science. China is one of the leading countries in using our software.”