In memory of Professor Andriy O. Lyakhov (1982-2013)

In the early morning of January 3, 2013, Andriy Lyakhov suddenly passed away. He left behind many friends who loved and respected him, a loving wife Olga and two 11-month old twin daughters, Christina and Sophia.

He had a rapid and brilliant – but unfortunately too brief –scientific career, which promised to be stellar. He was born on November 20, 1982, in Chernivtsy (Ukraine). His first scientific paper appeared when he was just 16. In 1999 he graduated from school with a gold medal and entered the University of Chernivtsy, from which he graduated with summa cum laude with major in Theoretical Physics in 2003. Following that, he obtained a PhD from the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 2007 in the field of quantum computing. I worked in Switzerland at that time and when I met him, recognizing his abilities and interest, I immediately offered him a postdoc position in my group. In 2009 he moved to my newly founded lab at Stony Brook University (US). On October 7, 2011, he was promoted to Research Assistant Professor. He has authored nearly 30 published or submitted papers, many of which are of breakthrough nature. He was the main author of the USPEX code, now used by 1200 scientists worldwide.

His future was to be bright. His talents got stronger with time and his success grew, while his personality remained kind, modest and pure. Everyone in our Department and in our laboratory loved him and respected him. He was well on the way to the highest academic achievements. He passed away suddenly and quietly. Early in the morning of January 3, 2013, he could not wake up. He was taken into emergency, and passed away in hospital. He just turned 30, but made big achievements. His friendship and great scientific contributions will always remain with us. He was blessed not only with rare talents, but also with rare happiness – big love (wife Olga) and two little daughters (Christina and Sophia). We will remember him with love and admiration.

(Contributed by: Artem R. Oganov, Department of Geosciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY, USA)