Maksim Grechko

Dr. Maksim Grechko is a Group Leader in the Department of Molecular Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. He received his bachelor's (2004) and master's (2006) degrees from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, followed by a PhD (2010) from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne focusing on spectroscopy of highly excited vibrational states of water molecules. After postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011-2014) with Prof. Martin Zanni, he joined the MPI-P in 2014 and became a group leader in 2016.

Dr. Grechko's research focuses on microscopic, molecular-scale dynamics in soft materials, particularly thermally excited low-energy molecular vibrations and their role in physical and biochemical phenomena. His group develops and utilizes nonlinear spectroscopy techniques, most notably the Two-Dimensional Terahertz-InfraRed-Visible (2D TIRV) spectroscopy, which measures correlations between low- and high-frequency vibrations to provide insights into molecular motions from simple inorganic molecules to complex peptides and proteins.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on advancing terahertz spectroscopy techniques and applying them to understand molecular dynamics in water, ionic liquids, and perovskite materials. His work bridges physics, chemistry, and materials science, with particular emphasis on vibrational coupling, hydrogen bonding networks, and energy transfer mechanisms at the molecular level.

Dr. Grechko actively collaborates with researchers across disciplines, most notably with Prof. Mischa Bonn, and has published in high-impact journals including Nature Physics, Nature Communications, and The Journal of Chemical Physics. His research group continues to push the boundaries of nonlinear spectroscopy to reveal fundamental molecular processes in soft matter systems.