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Volodymyr Vovchenko

Theoretical Physicist

Physics Department, University of Houston

About me

Welcome to my personal homepage!

I am an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Houston. My investigations mainly concern the properties of strongly interacting QCD matter under extreme conditions such as those realized in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions and neutron stars.

Previously, I had obtained my Master degree in Physics at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in Ukraine, a PhD degree at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, and then held appointments as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow in the Nuclear Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington.

Here you can find information about my research, publications, talks, and projects.

Interests

  • QCD Theory and Phenomenology
  • Heavy-Ion Collisions
  • Neutron Stars
  • Scientific Computing

Education

  • PhD in Theoretical Physics, 2018

    Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

  • MSc in Physics, 2013

    Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

  • BSc in Physics, 2011

    Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Experience

Research and Education

 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

Physics Department, University of Houston

Dec 2022 – Present Houston, TX, USA
Leading a research group on theory of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions.
 
 
 
 
 

Research Assistant Professor

Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington

Apr 2022 – Nov 2022 Seattle, WA, USA

The position is also known as Junior INT Fellow.

Theoretical research of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions.

 
 
 
 
 

Feodor Lynen Research Fellow

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Nuclear Science Division

Feb 2020 – Mar 2022 Berkeley, CA, USA

Nuclear theory group

Theoretical research of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions:

  • Freeze-out of fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions
  • Pion condensation

Funded by the Feodor Lynen Program of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.

 
 
 
 
 

Research Associate

Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Theoretical Physics

Jan 2017 – Feb 2020 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Theoretical research of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions:

  • QCD equation of state and phase structure under constraints from lattice gauge theory
  • Freeze-out in small and large systems created heavy-ion collisions
  • Development of hadron resonance gas model package Thermal-FIST

Teaching:

  • Seminars in various Theoretical Physics courses at the Physics Department of Goethe University Frankfurt
 
 
 
 
 

Doctoral Student

Goethe University Frankfurt & FIAS

Apr 2014 – Mar 2018 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

PhD work Quantum statistical van der Waals equation and its QCD applications with Prof. Dr. Horst Stoecker at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of Goethe University Frankfurt and Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies

 
 
 
 
 

Visiting Doctoral Student

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research

Dec 2013 – Sep 2015 Darmstadt, Germany
Algorithm design and implementation for online physics analysis in the CBM experiment at FAIR. High performance computing using SIMD and OpenMP.
 
 
 
 
 

Software Engineer

Help Micro Company

Jul 2013 – Nov 2013 Kyiv, Ukraine

Software development for cash registers

  • Driver development (C++)
  • Support software maintenance (Delphi)
  • Graphical user interface (Qt)
 
 
 
 
 

Internship

Institut Matériaux Microélectronique Nanosciences de Provence

Feb 2012 – Apr 2012 Marseille, France

Funded through a grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

 
 
 
 
 

MSc Student

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Physics Department

Sep 2011 – Jun 2013 Kyiv, Ukraine

Phenomenology of heavy-ion collisions

  • Space-time structure of fireball
  • Dynamics of partition into spectators and participants

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Probing the QCD phase structure with heavy-ion collisions

Fluctuations and correlations in heavy-ion collisions as a probe of the QCD phase structure

The phase structure of QCD and the nature of the transition between ordinary hadronic matter and the deconfined state of quark-gluon plasma remain among the key open questions in high-energy physics. This talk will explore how these …

High-Order Moments and EoS Theory Overview

Teaching

Courses taught

This is the list of courses that I taught as well useful links.

Computational Physics

Taught at the Physics Department of the University of Houston

  • Spring 2023 (PHYS6350)

Syllabus
Lecture notes and code

Coding projects

Here you can find my coding projects, which include code for high energy physics applications and also several Android apps that model and visualize different physical systems with OpenGL on an Android device.

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CUDA Molecular Dynamics

Molecular dynamics simulation and visualization of the Lennard-Jones system utilizing CUDA-enabled GPU’s

Source code

Thermal-FIST

A C++ package designed for the convenient general-purpose analysis within a family of hadron resonance gas (HRG) models.

Reference: Comput. Phys. Commun. 244, 295 (2019)

Source code
Online documentation

Quantum Oscillator

Get it on Google Play An Android app to visualize the wave functions of the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator.

10,000+ installs / 4.8 rating

Hydrogen Atom

Get it on Google Play An Android app to visualize the electron orbitals of the hydrogen atom in 3D.

10,000+ installs / 4.7 rating

Source code

Pendulum Studio

Get it on Google Play An Android app to simulate the motion of nine different pendulum systems in real time.

50,000+ installs / 4.7 rating

Source code

Awards

Giersch-Excellence-Grant for outstanding work and progress in the PhD thesis project

Giersch-Excellence-Grant for outstanding work and progress in the PhD thesis project

Award for best scientific works of young scientists and students in 2012

Contact

  • vvovchenko@uh.edu
  • Physics Department, University of Houston, Science and Research Building 1, 3507 Cullen Blvd., 77204 Houston