For an outstanding contribution to the development of alternative energy, scientific achievements in the design of artificial photosynthesis systems, a cycle of scientific works in the field of bioenergy and hydrogen energy
Head of the Controlled Photobiosynthesis Laboratory at the K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS, Moscow)
Head of the Controlled Photobiosynthesis Laboratory at the K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow; Chief Research Scientist at the Institute of Basic Biological Problems RAS, Pushchino, Moscow Region; Professor at the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow; Professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Moscow, Russia; Head of Bionanotechnology Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan; Professor at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Professor at the College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor at the Foshan University, China, and Invited-Adjunct Professor at the Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology(DGIST), Daegu, Republic of Korea.
He obtained both his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the Department of Physics, Azerbaijan State University, Baku. He obtained his Dr. Sci. Degree in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry from the Institute of Plant Physiology, RAS (2002, Moscow), and Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics (Biophysics) from the Institute of Biophysics, USSR (1984, Pushchino). His Ph.D. advisors were Academician Alexander A. Krasnovsky and Dr. Sci. Vyacheslav V. Klimov.
He worked for many years (1990–2007) as visiting scientist at the National Institute for Basic Biology (with Prof. Norio Murata), Okazaki, Japan, and in the Department de Chimie-Biologie, Université du Québec at Trois Rivières (with Prof. Robert Carpentier), Québec, Canada (1988–1990). He has broad cooperation with world class researchers including N. Murata, R. Carpentier, A. Hoff, G. Renger, Govindjee, H. van Gorkom, R. Picorel, S. Ramakrishna, H. Nishihara, J. Eaton-Rye, M. Brestic, T. Tomo, J.-R. Shen and M. Najafpour.
He is associate editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier), section editor of the BBA Bioenergetics (Elsevier), associate editor of the Photosynthesis Research (Springer), associate editor of the Photosynthetica (Springer), associate editor of the Functional Plant Biology (CSIRO), section editor in chief of the Cells (MDPI) and associate editor of the Heliyon (CellPress), and member of the Editorial Board of more than ten international journals. He has been a guest editor of many (more than 30) special issues in international peer-reviewed journals (Photosynth. Res.; Biochim. Biophys. Acta; Photochem. Photobiol. Sci.; J. Photochem. Photobiol., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy; Frontiers in Plant Science, etc.). He also acts as a referee for major international journals and grant proposals. He has authored (or co-authored) more than 350 research papers, 37 book chapters, 7 patents and 10 books. His work has been cited over 19,500 times, and his h-index = 71.
In 2016 he has been recognized by Thomson Reuters-WoS (Clarivate Analytics) the most Highly Cited Russian researcher worldwide in Biology.
In 2018, he has been recognized as the first in the ranking of the most highly cited scientists in Russia and awarded “Scopus Awards Russia, 2018” in the category of “Life Sciences”.
In 2018, awarded an award for the contribution and assistance to the development of science in the Republic of Azerbaijan (Web of Science Awards 2018).
In 2019, he is winner of the K.A. Timiryazev prize of Russian Academy of Sciences
In 2018, 2019 and 2020 he has been recognized by Thomson Reuters – WoS (Clarivate Analytics) as one of the Highly Cited world-class researchers selected for their exceptional research performance, and entered the list of the most highly cited scientists of the world (1% of the total number of researchers).
He has organized 10 international conferences on “Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability”.
Allakhverdiev S.I. has the priority of discovering, detecting and explaining the participation of pheophytin in electron transfer in the PS II reaction center (His Ph.D. Thesis). He suggested and proved energy and kinetic schemes of electron transfer during photosynthesis. His work proved that in photosynthesis, water oxidation and oxygen evolution occur involving 4 manganese atoms. Those results became a valuable contribution to worldwide biological science and are included in all textbooks in the photosynthesis field.
During the last 25 years, Allakhverdiev S.I. has also worked in a new scientific discipline – the development of artificial photosynthesis systems in order to obtain molecular hydrogen as an alternative energy source. Through this work, the possibility of PS II reconstruction was demonstrated. More than 50 organometallic complexes (based on manganese oxides and some other metals with carbon nanotubes, graphene or graphene oxide) were developed, synthesized and studied in order to find highly effective water oxidation catalysts. A number of these compounds are capable of performing photosynthetic water oxidation mimicking the natural process. They are the prototype for the incorporation of a nature-inspired oxygen-evolving complex in developed artificial photosynthesis systems. Artificial systems based on modified PS I and PS II for generating electricity (solar cells) and molecular hydrogen using solar energy have been developed and constructed. His research interests include the structure and function of PS II, especially the water-oxidizing complex, artificial photosynthesis, hydrogen photoproduction, catalytic conversion of solar energy, plants under environmental stress, and photo-receptor signaling.