Kirill Kovnir is an Assistant Professor at University of California, Davis. He was born in Kirovograd, Ukraine. He studied chemistry and received Ph.D. at the Moscow State University scrutinizing inverse clathrates. Afterwards he was tunneling between MPI for Chemical Physics of Solids and Fritz Haber Institute of the MPS exploring potential of intermetallic compounds in catalysis. Later, in Florida State University he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of magnetism. Kirill's research in the broad field of materials chemistry is focused on synthesis of novel thermoelectric, superconducting, magnetic, and low-dimensional materials and exploring their crystal structure, chemical bonding, and physical properties.