Aleksandr Chernatynskiy is a member of the Center for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel and a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in Theoretical Physics from Perm State University, Russia, in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Louisville in 2005. His research focuses on simulations of the materials properties based on atomistic techniques, including first-principles methods. Particular applications of interest are phonons thermal transport in technologically important systems such as nuclear fuels and thermal barrier coatings.