Professor Gediminas Gaigalas Receives an Honorary Doctorate from Malmö University

Professor Gediminas Gaigalas, Vilnius University, Faculty of Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics (ITPA), a world-leading researcher in theoretical atomic physics, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Technology and Social Sciences, Malmö University.

"The scientific collaboration between my research group and my colleagues at Malmö University is currently intensifying. The range of problems we are working on is expanding, and this award will undoubtedly boost it even further. Although the news of the honorary doctorate came as a surprise and unexpected, when I think about the research I have carried out and the research I plan to carry out, I take this award not only as a personal recognition but also as an international recognition of the research work of my research group, the Faculty of Physics of the ITPA, and the research work of Vilnius University," said Prof. G. Gaigalas.

The Malmö University News describes the professor as having scientific seriousness and enthusiasm, which inspires PhD students and colleagues.

“What distinguishes Gediminas Gaigalas as a researcher is his deep knowledge of his field and how incredibly dedicated he is,” says Per Jönsson, professor of applied mathematics and associate professor of physics at Malmö University.

G. Gaigalas has collaborated closely with several researchers in atomic astrophysics at the Faculty of Technology and Society for over 30 years.

Together, they have developed computational programs for atoms and ions that are used by a large number of research groups in laser physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics.

"Malmö University, which has decided to award me an honorary doctorate, is a young, dynamic and fast-growing Swedish university. I have a long history of collaboration with my colleagues from this university. My first visit to this university took place from 12-16 February 2007, as I was working in the Department of Nature, Environment and Society with my long-standing colleague Professor Per Jönsson, whom I met at the 12th EGAS conference in Toruń, Poland, in 1991, when we were both young researchers and interested in each other's research, which we presented at the conference. The second time we met was during Per Jönsson's PhD thesis defence at Lund University in Sweden in January 1995. Since then, I have visited Malmö University many times as part of the Erasmus exchange programme and various projects, and each time, I have seen how the University is becoming a modern, dynamically changing, interdisciplinary university that promotes international scientific cooperation and the implementation of new projects and ideas," said Prof. G. Gaigalas about the close cooperation.

“Our research in atomic astrophysics is based on combining experimental and calculated data for atoms and ions to analyse spectra from stars and gain knowledge about how, for example, superheavy elements are created in collisions between neutron stars. Professor Gaigalas and his research group have established themselves as leading experts in this field, and we look forward to far-reaching collaborations,” adds P. Jönsson.

Prof. G. Gaigalas has been working as a researcher at ITPA since 1982. His main areas of research are Multi-electron atomic theory, Spectroscopy and Modelling of contemporary atomic theory problems based on usual and symbolic programming. He has received numerous awards both in Lithuania and worldwide, and in 2018, he received the VU Rector's Science Award. He is currently the head of the ITPA Atomic Structure Computation Group.