I came to the US from Ukraine. I was born in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, which is one of the biggest industrial cities of the country. After one year of living in noise and industrial fumes with a little baby (that is me), my parents decided to move to the more quiet and picturesque city of Cherkassy, where I grew up and went to school.

In 2000, after graduating from High School, I went to Kiev, the capitol of Ukraine – in my opinion, the MOST beautiful city in the world – where I entered the Chemistry Department of Taras Shevchenko University. During my undergraduate years, I was involved in research on semiconductor gas sensors based on tin dioxide.               Dr. Nelli Maksymovych was my undergraduate advisor, and I will always be indebted to her for support and inspiration.

In parallel with classes and research, I tutored students of the Physical-and-Mathematical Lyceum in Chemistry. This lyceum is a High School institution associated with Taras Shevchenko University.

In 2005 I joined the Borguet research group. My interests are in ultra-broadband infrared pulse sources, non-linear phenomena, investigations of interface processes.