Dr. Rostislav Bukasov grew up in Ukraine and earned his specialist degree in chemistry from Kharkiv National University in 1994. After working in National Center of Drug Research for two years, he was employed in and soon owned a small photo service business operating in Russia and Ukraine. Then he worked as an analytical chemist in pharmaceutical industry in Kharkiv for 15 month. He came to a Graduate School of Chemistry Department at University of Utah in Salt Lake City in 2004. He started research in Nanotechnology/Analytical Chemistry as a first graduate student of Dr. Shumaker Parry in 2005. His PhD study of unique, tunable infra-red plasmonic properties of nanocrescents resulted in three first author publications in Nano Letters (among 10% of the most cited publications (2007) in the most impactful journal of American Chemical Society (ACS) and the second most impactful journal in nanotechnology), ACS Nano and Analytical Chemistry. As a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Marc Porter group in Nanoinstitute of Utah he studied/developed sandwich immunoassays with Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering, which are applicable for biodetection and medical diagnostics (early detection of cancer, tuberculosis, viruses, e.g).
Beyond chemistry Dr. Bukasov is proficient in hiking . He is exceptional in hiking/climbing with kids (e. g. Mt. Elbrus, 5642 m with 9 year old daughter Yunona Bukasova, more on www.kidsuperhiker.com). He does a good deal of intensive exercise, serious reading on a variety of subjects (usually in English), traveling, taking pictures and thinking.
Advice to students: Try to be as much a well rounded person as you can be, as long as you are still good in your profession or area of specialization. Study not just for the test to maximize your GPA but to understand principles and therefore to keep the knowledge for many years after graduation. Also remember what your president said during his lecture at NU: “Those who read books will be in charge of those who read mainly in Internet.“
