Alexander I. Boldyrev

R. Gaurth Hansen Professor of Chemistry

at Utah State University

12/19/1951-8/26/2023

A native of Novokuznetsk in Siberia, Alexander (Alex) Boldyrev’s interest in chemistry and quantum mechanics began in 10th grade when he attended the physico-mathematical school at Novosibirsk University, where he later was admitted for university-level education. During his time at this university, he learned about quantum chemistry and carried out his first calculations. Upon graduation from Novosibirsk, he undertook graduate study at Moscow State University where he studied under Prof. Oleg Charkin, focusing on the behavior of non-rigid/fluxional molecules, earning his Ph. D. degree in 1978. It was during his graduate studies that he married Natalia, and their son Dmitry was born. Alex moved to the Institute of Chemical Physics at the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1983, working in Prof. Alexander Ovchinnikov’s group. In 1986, a Doctor of Sciences degree was conferred by the Moscow Physico-Chemical Institute where he carried out research and taught.

It was in this timeframe when his work on superhalogens and superalkalkalis blossomed. Later, he was an Advanced Senior Researcher at the USSR Academy of Sciences (1988-1991). From 1990 through 1991, he held an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, working in collaboration with Prof. Paul Schleyer. Then, in 1992 Alex decided he wanted to move to the U. S., and Prof. Jack Simons was fortunate to attract him to the University of Utah, where he served as a Research Professor. After several highly productive years doing research on a variety of novel molecular and anionic species, in 1999 Alex Boldyrev was offered and accepted a faculty position at Utah State University, where he remained teaching and carrying out research in the Chemistry Department until his death.

Professor Boldyrev’s Google Scholar page shows more than 600 scientific publications, more than 25,000 citations, and an h-index of 85, all of which are remarkable. He has won numerous awards, including two Humboldt Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, the 2008 American Chemical Society Utah Award, and election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His work with Gutsev on superhalogens (molecules with electron affinities in excess of those of the halogen atoms) and superalakalis was groundbreaking and remains highly recognized, and his extensive body of work extending the concept of aromaticity into metallic clusters with Aleksey Kuznetsov, Anastassia Alexandrova, and others has been revolutionary. With Dmitry Zubarev, he developed an electron density partitioning technique, called AdNDP, which allows to identify simple 2-electron bonding motifs in complicated systems such as inorganic clusters and materials. AdNDP is widely used by many theorists around the world. Another component of Alex’s research has been close collaboration with experimental scientists, highlighted by his many-year interaction with Lai-Sheng Wang; the two of them studied many novel species including dianions that are only stable when solvated, anions containing planar tetra-coordinated carbon species, superhalogen anions, and more.

In addition to being a world-class chemist, Alexander Boldyrev made major contributions in two other areas well worth mentioning. He produced several first-rate Ph. D. students who have gone off to pursue successful scientific careers of their own. He has been a wonderful mentor. 6 of his Ph.D. students won the Robins Award – the most prestigious award for graduate students in USU. He, along with Prof. Alexandrova, Prof. Wang, and his wife, Natalia Boldyreva, created the International Conference on Chemical Bonding in 2013 and have hosted this international conference on the island of Kauai, Hawaii every year since then. This Conference will now be named in Alex’s honor starting in 2025.   Along with all of this, he was a gifted and devoted instructor and faculty colleague.  At whatever level, his classes were among the most sought after among both undergraduates and graduate students, and he provided individual attention to all, conveying his infectious enthusiasm for chemistry at all levels.

Please join his family in honoring Alex by making a donation to the Alexander "Alex" Ivanovich Boldyrev Scholarship Endowment in the College of Science.  The scholarship will benefit students who are pursuing a degree in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

• Your gift will be used only for the above-stated purpose if the required minimum endowment level of $25,000 is met by August 31, 2028.  If not met, the gift will be considered expendable towards the stated purpose. 
• The Endowment will exist in perpetuity. If circumstances arise that render the stated purpose of the Endowment (as set forth herein) illegal, impractical, impossible, or wasteful (e.g., a change in law, the elimination of a USU program, position, or course of study, the persistent unavailability of scholarship recipients that meet the criteria, etc.); then, as set forth in this Solicitation, under such circumstances and in keeping with Utah Code 51-8-501(1), USU may designate a new purpose and/or scholarship selection criteria for the Endowment. Any such new purpose shall be defined by USU’s President and the Dean of the College of Science.
• The Endowment will be invested under the direction of the University Public Treasurer. Oversight and advisement of investments will be provided by the USU Investment Advisory Committee in accordance with USU’s investment policy. The USU Foundation is the legal entity designated by USU to receive charitable gifts in support of its academic mission.
• Distributions from the Endowment shall be governed by USU’s Endowment Spending Policy. The spending policy calls for an annual distribution up to 5% (currently set at 4%) of the value of the endowment account to be expended per the gift agreement. An additional 1.5% of the endowment value shall be used to fund the administration of the endowment and USU advancement efforts. All additional gains shall be retained as appreciation and invested along with the corpus to grow the value of the Endowment over time.
• By letter dated May 21, 2008, the Internal Revenue Service has declared the USU Foundation (federal tax identification number 87-0627128), to be a duly qualified charitable organization under section 501(c)(3) and also an organization described in sections 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(iv) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is a duly chartered active Utah nonprofit corporation, under the provision of Utah Code, Title 16, Chapter 6a.