Career
He is a brother of Yury Kovalchuk. Since 2001 he has been the Scientific Secretary of the Council for Science and High Technologies attached to the President of the Russian Federation. Since February 2005 he has been the Director of the Kurchatov Institute.
In June 2007 by a decision of the Russian Academy of Sciences Presidium Mikhail Kovalchuk was appointed acting vice-president of the Academy for nanotechnology.
The RAS rejected Kovalchuk"s application for full membership in May 2008.