Stepan Kalmykov graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University. In 2000 he defended his Ph.D thesis and in 2008 his doctorate. In 2010 he became a professor. In 2016 Professor Kalmykov was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Scirnces (RAS) and in 2022 he was elected an academician of the RAS. In September 2022 academician Kalmykov was elected vice-president of the RAS.
Since 2012 Stepan Kalmykov has worked as a head of the Department of Radiochemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Since 2019 he has headed the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University. He became the scientific director of this faculty in 2022.
The main scientific works are related to modern areas of radiochemistry – the fundamental patterns of the behavior of radionuclides in the environment, in relation to the geological isolation of radioactive waste, the development of new effective methods for the isolation and separation of radionuclides and their detection, as well as the scientific basis for obtaining radiopharmaceuticals for the needs of nuclear medicine.
In 2014 he was awarded the Rosatom State Corporation insignia “For contribution to the development of the nuclear industry”. In 2020 academician Kalmykov was awarded the jubilee medal of the Rosatom State Corporation “75 years of the Russian nuclear industry.” In 2022 he was awarded the Order of Friendship.