The actual birth of the Department of theoretical physics at Kazan state University in its modern form occurred in 1956, when the specialization of students in theoretical physics was opened at the Department of theoretical and experimental physics, headed by Professor Semyon Altschuler.
The first graduation of theoretical students took place in 1957. Officially, the Department of theoretical physics was established in 1960 on the initiative of S. A. Altschuler, who headed it until 1973. From 1973 to 2000 the head of the Department of theoretical physics was Professor Boris Ivanovich Kochelaev, from 2000 to 2005 the Department was headed by Professor Boris Zalmanovich Malkin, and since may 2005 the head of the Department is Professor Yuri Proshin.
Currently, the Department has five doctors, seven candidates of physical and mathematical Sciences, 4 professors, eight associate professors and two assistants-candidates of physical and mathematical Sciences. The staff of the Department prepared their dissertations while studying in graduate school at the Department or working as teachers. In total, more than 50 people successfully completed postgraduate studies at the Department of theoretical physics and defended their candidate's theses.
Scientific research conducted by the staff of the Department of theoretical physics for more than 50 years, basically can be combined under the General name "Theoretical research of resonance properties of solids" which includes studies of magnetic resonance in normal and superconducting metals, electron-phonon interactions, crystal field and spin relaxation in crystals, electron paramagnetic resonance and optical spectra of ion crystals. In recent years, the range of research has expanded significantly, in particular, to study magnetic and kinetic phenomena in low-dimensional systems (films, multilayers, contacts, quasi-two-dimensional structures), magnetic breakdown in metals, spin relaxation in htsp compounds, dielectric relaxation and phenomena in self-similar systems (with fractal structure), quantum computing.
Currently, scientific research at the Department is conducted in accordance with the grants won by the competition RPF, rosobrazovaniya and RFBR, previously the staff of the Department conducted research on grants grants ANT RT, a number of international grants (Volksvagen, Swiss science Foundation); was won a number of individual grants and scholarships.