On 23 December 2014 Andrei was one of two ‘official opponents’ at a public PhD thesis defense ‘Kinetics of order-disorder transition in systems of self-propelling particles’ by Oleksandr O. Chepizhko, which took place at Odessa National University, Ukraine. After extensive deliberations a 13-members strong Specialized Scientific Council unanimously voted in favour to offer Oleksandr a PhD degree in theoretical physics.