Faculty of Natural
Sciences
Comenius University Bratislava

RNDr. Lukáš Félix Pašteka, PhD.

Department of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislave, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava

tel. +421-2-9014-9204; email: lukas.f.pastekauniba.sk, room: CH1-323

Currently on research sabbatical at the University of Groningen in Netherlands.

Research Interests

Relativistic & QED effects in chemistry

Properties of heavy & superheavy elements

Atomic & molecular spectroscopy, laser cooling of molecules

Search for new physics (variation of fundamental constants, parity violation in chiral molecules, electron EDM...)

Fluxional organic molecules

Molecular photoswitches

Current Research Projects

Postdoctoral grant of the Comenius Universiity (GUKPOST): Design and modelling of molecular photo-switches – principal investigator

Slovak Research and Development Agency project no. APVV-20-0098: Molecular switching under the spotlight – research fellow

Slovak Research and Development Agency project no. APVV-20-0127: Towards reliable finite temperature ab initio calculations of moleculesand materials – research fellow

European Commission H2020 – ERA Chairs project no. 810701Establishing Laboratory for Advanced Materials at the Comenius University – project manager / research fellow
lab websites: link, link

Slovak Scientific Grant Agency VEGA project no. 1/0777/19: Benchmark calculations of properties, interactions and reactivity of chemical systems – research fellow

Selected Publications

Enhancing the Potential of Fused Heterocycle-Based Triarylhydrazone Photoswitches, Chemistry - A European Journal 30, e202303509 (2024); DOI: 10.1002/chem.202303509  (cover page) (author profiles)

Large vibrationally induced parity violation effects in CHDBrI+, Chemical Communications 59, 14579 (2023); DOI: 10.1039/D3CC03787H

Toward Detection of the Molecular Parity Violation in Chiral Ru(acac)3 and Os(acac)3, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 13, 10011 (2022); DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02434  (cover page)

Ambimodal Pericyclic Rearrangements of Dialkenyl-Bullvalenes Give Tetrahydro-1,8-ethenoheptalenes, Organic Letters 24, 319 (2022); DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.1c03984

Stereomutation of Substituted Bullvalenes, Organic Letters 23, 1157 (2021); DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c03470  (cover page)

Boronate Ester Bullvalenes, Journal of the American Chemical Society 142, 3680 (2020); DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b12930

The electron affinity of astatine. Nature Communications 11, 3824 (2020); DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17599-2

Material Size Dependence on Fundamental Constants. Physical Review Letters 122, 160801 (2019); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.160801

Synthesis and Analysis of Substituted Bullvalenes. Angewandte Chemie IE 57, 2570 (2018); DOI: 10.1002/anie.201712157  (cover page)

Relativistic Coupled Cluster Calculations with Variational Quantum Electrodynamics Resolve the Discrepancy between Experiment and Theory Concerning the Electron Affinity and Ionization Potential of Gold. Physical Review Letters 118, 23002 (2017); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.023002

Relativistic and quantum electrodynamic effects in superheavy elements. Nuclear Physics A 944, 551 (2014); DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2015.02.005

Selected talks

(* = invited)

2024   * Fundamental Physics with Radioactive Molecules, Seattle, WA (US)

2023   * Summer School: Search for new physics with low-energy precision tests, Ameland (NL) - lecturer

2022   * 12th World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists Congress, Vancouver (CA)

2021   * 13th Intl. Conference on Relativistic Effects in Heavy-Element Chemistry and Physics (online)

2020   * Berendsen Center for Multiscale Modeling and Material Design Symposium, Groningen (NL)

2019   * Humboldt Foundation Alumni Meeting (Humboldt Kolleg), Piešťany (SK)

               59th Sanibel Symposium, St. Simons Island, GA (USA)

2018   * Searching for New Physics with Cold and Controlled Molecules, MITP, Mainz (DE)

            * Atoms, Molecules, and Materials in Extreme Environments, CAS, Oslo (NO)

               16th Central European Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, Srní (CZ)          

               Centre for Advanced Study meeting in honor of Dage Sundholm, CAS, Oslo (NO)

2017   * Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity, University of Groningen (NL)

            * 15th Central European Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, Wisła (PL)

            * Advanced Technologies Research Institute, Slovak University of Technology, Trnava (SK)

Teaching

Physical Chemistry 1&2 – seminars

Selected Chapters in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry – selected lectures

What is Physical Chemistry – selected lectures

Science Otreach

Organization of the 17th International Congress of Quantum Chemistry in Bratislava – ICQC 2023 

Popular-science talks:

Popular-science articles and blogs:

Chemistry correspondence seminar CHEMOUK for motivated high-school students

Demonstrating theoretical chemistry for the FNS Open Day

Preparing and evaluating students for the International Chemistry Olympiad