My former colleague at Leeds University Alexei Likhtman, who has died aged 44 after a fall while hiking, was a leading scientist, who showed how computer simulation could be used in imaginative new ways to understand materials of complex molecular structure. An important example is that of flowing melted plastics – here the molecules are giant strings (“polymers”), entangled together and endowing the material with elasticity as well as fluidity. The challenge of identifying the shadowy “entanglements” has been as important to industry as to fundamental science. Alexei’s work showed how to “see” these structures in simulations, in ways that avoided obscuration by irrelevant detail, and produced powerful design tools for industry.
Son of Evgeny Likhtman and Tatiana Bykova, both physicists, Alexei was educated in Moscow. He was awarded a diploma in physics with honours from Moscow State University in 1994, remaining there for his PhD research. During this period Alexei met and in 1990 married Katrina Belotserkovskaya, and they soon had two daughters, Sonya and Asya.
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