Professor Igor Barashenkov

Prof Igor Barashenkov’s studies of solitary waves and localised structures have had a significant influence on nonlinear dynamics and mathematical physics. They find applications in high-precision spectroscopy, optical communications, physics of magnetism and ferrofluids, and new quantum technologies.

His most recent research interest concerns oscillons in models of particle physics. He has formulated a variational approach to oscillons—a mathematical problem that resisted solution for some 30 years. He has also discovered the so-called jamming anomaly in distributed PT-symmetric systems and formulated the Hamiltonian approach to PT-symmetric waveguides.

Prof Barashenkov joined the University of Cape Town as a senior lecturer in 1992 and was promoted to full professor by 2002. From 2008 to 2011, he served as the Director of the Centre for Theoretical and Mathematical Physics at UCT. He was instrumental in establishing ties between South Africa and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia.

In 2000, he was awarded the Harry Oppenheimer Medal and in 2008, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa. Recently, he was appointed associate editor for the Journal of Nonlinear Waves published by Cambridge University Press.