Corresponding Member RAS V.K. Cherkasov (1946 - 2023)

Vladimir Cherkasov was a well-known expert in the chemistry of stable free radicals and paramagnetic organometallic and coordination compounds. He was one of the first in our country to introduce the method of spin traps into the practice of research in the early 1970s. Vladimir Cherkasov was the co-author of the discovery of an unknown phenomenon – the redox isomerism inherent in the nature of paramagnetic complexes of transition metals with radical ligands. In his works on the example of bistable cobalt o-semiquinone complexes, it was shown that the mechanism of photo(thermo)mechanical effect is caused by redox-isomeric transformations on a molecular level. Vladimir Cherkasov et al. demonstrate the possibility of constructing multi-spin coordination polymers as prototypes of molecular ferromagnets based on o-semiquinone metal complexes.

Vladimir Cherkasov’s works in o-quinone photochemistry have considerable practical importance. Based on the results of fundamental research in this field, he contributed significantly to the development of new photosensitive media for information recording, as well as photoinitiating systems for the polymerization of oligoesteracrylates and technologies to produce optical elements.

Vladimir Cherkasov was a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1985), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Science (2003), the author of over 400 scientific papers published in international and Russian journals, 10 copyright certificates of the USSR, 2 patents of the Russian Federation and 2 U.S. patents. Under his scientific supervision, 1 doctoral theses and 13 Ph.D. theses were prepared and defended. Vladimir Cherkasov was deputy chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was a member of the expert councils of the Russian Science Foundation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Higher Attestation Commission, and was a member of the scientific councils of the Department of Chemistry and Material Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences.