Taras Pogorelov received a Diploma in Biomedical Engineering from Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1995, an M.S. in Mathematics in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics in 2006, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 2006 to 2009 he was a postdoctoral research associate with the Todd Martinez Group in Chemistry Department and from 2009 to 2012 he was a postdoctoral research associate with the Emad Tajkhorshid Group at the Beckman Institute. In 2012 he was appointed a Research Assistant Professor at the Beckman Institute and the Department of Chemistry as well as a Senior Research Scientist at the School of Chemical Sciences where he is the principal investigator of the Computational Chemistry Research Lab and advises and collaborates with the School’s researchers in the areas of advanced computational chemistry. He is a faculty affiliate of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. His research interests are in application and development of computational and theoretical methods for modeling of biological macromolecules using the frameworks of molecular dynamics, quantum chemistry, and molecular evolution. Current emphasis is on the membrane-associated phenomena, membrane-protein interactions, cell signaling, and protein folding.

Faculty Fellow, National Center of Supercomputing Applications          2014-2015

Campus Research Board Award, University of Illinois,                               2012-2013

Richard I. Gumport Travel Award in Biochemistry, University of Illinois, 2011

NIH Travel Award to attend the NIGMS Workshop for Postdocs Transitioning to Independent Positions, 2010

List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Students, Chemistry, UIUC, 2004

Commencement Speaker, Upward Bound Academy, US Dept. Ed. TRiO, Office of Minority Student Affairs, UIUC, 2002

Excellence in Instructions, Upward Bound Academy, US Dept. Ed. TRiO, Office of Minority Student Affairs, UIUC, 2000, 2001