Dr. Vasily Fedotov is a Full Professor at the Centre for Photonic Science and Engineering of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), where he leads a multidisciplinary research laboratory, the SPARQ Lab.

Vasily graduated the Department of Physics of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) with an MSc degree in physics and received a PhD in laser physics from the University of Southampton (UK). Prior to joining Skoltech in 2023 he had held the post of Principal Research Fellow at Southampton University’s world-renown Optoelectronics Research Centre, where he had been conducting multidisciplinary research centred around optics and electrodynamics for over 18 years. He also held a prestigious 5-year Career Acceleration Fellowship awarded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and received New Directions for Research Leaders Award from the same council.

Prof. Fedotov’s research interests include novel optical phenomena in metamaterials and structured media, light-matter interaction at the nanoscale, plasmons and nanoscale localization of light, optical manifestations of fundamental symmetry breaking (2D- and 3D-chirality), electrodynamics of toroidal and super-toroidal current and field configurations, photonics of nanoscale structural phase transitions, stiction and capillary effects at the nanoscale, nano-electro-mechanical systems, liquid crystals and superconductors.

With more than 90 peer-reviewed publications (cited on average 113 times per article) and over 80 invited talks given at major international conferences Prof. Fedotov has made prominent contributions to the fields of optics, nanophotonics, metamaterials and classical electrodynamics. Among them are the demonstrations of the new fundamental effect of asymmetric transmission (placed by Google Scholar among top 10 classic papers on electromagnetism), light vortices in plasmonic nanoparticles, super-resolution flat lens, optical magnetic mirror, metamaterial perfect absorber, extrinsic and specular optical activities, superconducting plasmonics, dynamic toroidal dipole and anapole.

Prof. Fedotov sat on the programme committees of international conferences CLEO/EQEC (2011 – 2019 and 2021 as the chair) and META (2012 and 2014), the steering committee of the Metamaterials Congress (2012 – 2024), and has served on the editorial board of Nature’s Scientific Reports journal since 2014.

Prof. Fedotov is ranked 270 among optical scientists and placed in the top 2% of all scientists according to the 2024 worldwide rating by Stanford University and Elsevier.