The Department of “Applied Physics” was the first department established at the Physico-Technical Faculty in 1998 (Order No. 1-90 dated July 18, 1997). Since the formation of the jointly subordinate faculty with the Ministry of Education and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine – the Physico-Technical Faculty of the NTUU “KPI”, less than three years had passed. According to the concept of creating the Physico-Technical Faculty, the faculty was founded with the aim of preserving and mastering the effective and time-tested physico-technical education system, which, after the collapse of the USSR, remained outside Ukraine. Leading scientists of Ukraine participated in the establishment of the faculty, including the President of the National Academy of Sciences, Academician Boris Paton, the Minister of Education, Academician Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Academicians Viktor Baryakhtar, Yuriy Daletsky, Anatoliy Shydlovsky, Anatoliy Shpak, Corresponding Member Valentyn Cherepin, and others. The formation of the faculty coincided with the times of deep economic and political crisis that the young state had been experiencing since 1991. The attention given by the Minister of Education Mykhailo Zgurovsky, the President of the Academy of Sciences Boris Paton, his closest assistant Anatoliy Shpak, and the head of the Scientific and Technical Center (formerly the “Kyiv Branch of MIPT”) Valentyn Cherepin to the affairs of the Physico-Technical Faculty was all the more valuable. In conditions of chronic lack of funds, galloping inflation, and the collapse of traditional structures and connections, they found opportunities to provide material and organizational assistance to the young faculty. Such close cooperation with the faculty teachers and its leadership, true enthusiasts of their work, yielded quick results. In less than three years, it was possible to significantly strengthen the material base of the faculty, create a computer laboratory, a state-of-the-art educational laboratory for general physics, and establish and develop the methodological base for teaching general cycle disciplines.
Shpak Anatoliy Petrovych
By the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1998, it became clear that the faculty had taken shape, and the question arose about formalizing the organizational structure and establishing specialized departments. It was quite logical to form new departments with the broad involvement of Academy of Sciences employees and faculty teachers who stood at the foundation of its inception. Most of the Physico-Technical Faculty teachers (Gomonay O.V., Graivoronsky M.V., Kravtsov O.V., Litvinova T.V., Monastyrska H.Ye.), who were directly involved in its formation, were physicists. Therefore, it was natural that the first department at the Physico-Technical Faculty was the Department of “Applied Physics”. The first head of the department was unanimously elected a person who had been closely following the development of the new faculty and repeatedly confirmed his commitment to the cause of physico-technical education in Ukraine with his word, deeds, and authority. This person was the Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine – Shpak Anatoliy Petrovych.
The concept of the educational activity of the department, as well as the entire Physico-Technical Faculty, is the implementation of the Physico-Technical education system in Ukraine, which ensures the highest level of training in fundamental and applied sciences, programming, foreign languages, and provides exceptional opportunities for theoretical training combined with the acquisition of practical skills. This system is based on the principles of the higher physico-technical school, implemented in the Polytechnic School in Paris, the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later – in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In pre-revolutionary times, such a system was adopted in certain faculties of KPI. By the beginning of the 20 years of the 21st century, this system began to be implemented in most universities in Ukraine, but at the end of the 20th century, such an approach was truly innovative. The main principles of the Physico-Technical education system are:
- thorough training in fundamental sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, etc.);
- combining broad general education in the best university traditions with narrow specialization and the acquisition of practical skills in basic institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and graduating departments;
- intensive study of foreign languages;
- flexibility of curricula;
- wide involvement of students in research and scientific work;
- participation of scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the educational process.
For the practical implementation of this concept, the department’s teachers had to solve several priority tasks:
- Create a balanced curriculum for the specialty “Applied Physics”, which, within the credits provided by the Ministry of Education for each individual discipline, would maximally satisfy modern requirements and principles of physico-technical education.
- Select a teaching staff who could ensure a high level of teaching both basic and special courses with the maximum possible involvement of the most qualified employees of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
- Develop and implement methodological support for all courses of disciplines taught by the department.
- Organize the laboratory base of the department, which would ensure the practical component of special courses for students to acquire skills in working with complex scientific equipment.
- Develop a system of interaction with the basic institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to ensure the research activities of students in these institutions and the research work of the department’s employees.
By the end of 2000, the curriculum for the specialty “Applied Physics” was developed for three specializations of the department, namely: “High Physical Technologies”, “Physics of Living Systems”, “Physical Problems of Energy”. All formal requirements for the educational process in an institution of the first level of accreditation were met. This allowed the department in 2001 to pass accreditation in the direction of “Applied Physics”. Moreover, the high potential of the teaching staff of the department allowed it to become, within the NTUU “KPI”, the basic educational institution for the development of state standards for training specialists at the level of specialist and master in the specialty “Applied Physics” and to join the working group on the creation of state standards in the direction of “Applied Physics”.
By the end of 2001, the teaching staff of the department was practically fully formed. Among the teachers of the Department of “Applied Physics” were 2 academicians, 4 corresponding members, 16 doctors of sciences and professors, 9 associate professors and candidates of sciences. Most of the teachers were familiar with the principles of physico-technical education not by hearsay, but from their own experience, as they had been teaching at the Kyiv Branch of MIPT for a long time, and some of the teachers were graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In different years, such outstanding specialists as Academician Kostyuk P.G., Shpak A.P., Corresponding Members Firsov G.S., Reztsov V.F., Fialko N.M., Cherepin V.T., Shcherba A.A., Professors Borshch A.O., Vasylenko D.A., Veselovsky M.S., Zhdanov V.I., Ilinsky O.G., Kobushkin O.P., Litovchenko A.S., Myslovych M.V., Nazarov O.M., Nyshchenko M.M., Parnovsky S.L., Plyuiko V.A., Tikhonov Ye.O., Uvarov V.M., Cheremnykh O.K. From the moment of the foundation of the department and to this day, active participation in its formation was played by Associate Professors Monastyrska H.Ye., Kondakov V.O., Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Negriyko A.M., as well as Zagorodniy V.V., Kuzkov V.P., teachers Krivenko-Yemotov Ya.D., Filin D.V.
For teaching lectures, conducting practical classes, and supervising qualification works, experienced scientists and teachers of NTUU “KPI” and institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine are involved: Institute of Materials Science named after Frantsevich, Institute of Mathematics, Institute of Space Research, Institute of Electrodynamics, Institute of Physiology named after Bogomolets, Institute of Physics, G.V. Kurdyumov Institute of Metal Physics, Institute of Semiconductor Physics named after Lashkaryov and others.
The creation of the laboratory base of the department aimed primarily at filling the practical content of courses in specializations, in particular, such as “Fundamentals of Scientific Research”, “Structural Research Methods” and others. To create a laboratory workshop of this level, it was necessary to have full-fledged modern scientific equipment, adapted primarily for performing scientific and practical tasks. During 1999-2001, thorough work was carried out to establish connections with these laboratories, select teaching staff for conducting laboratory work, and form the principles of methodological support and terms of their implementation. As a result, a laboratory workshop was created, which included EPR spectroscopy, X-ray, scanning, transmission, atomic force, Raman, Auger, and Mössbauer spectroscopy, various works on laser technology, and others. In fact, students, performing work, conducted a full-fledged scientific experiment, processing its results, thereby gaining experience in working with truly modern scientific equipment.
Another important stage in the department’s activities was the organization of close interaction with the basic institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to ensure the research activities of students and the management of this activity by the most qualified employees of these institutions. As basic for the specialization “High Physical Technologies”, the Institute of Metal Physics, Institute of Materials Science, Institute of Physics, Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine were chosen; for the specialization “Physics of Living Systems” – Institute of Physiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; for the specialization “Physical Problems of Energy” – Institute of Electrodynamics and Institute of Thermophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Later, the Institute of Space Research, the Institute of Information Registration Problems, the Institute of Superhard Materials, Institute of Theoretical Physics joined them. Even in the most difficult times, in each of the basic institutes, several laboratories, departments, or groups always functioned at a high world level. As a rule, it was in such laboratories that a number of international and national projects were carried out, modern equipment was concentrated, and, as a rule, it was such laboratories that showed the greatest interest in young specialists. It was to such laboratories that the department tried to direct its students for training and research work. In the vast majority of cases, students confirmed their high qualifications. Approximately one-third of them had a scientific paper published by the time of defending their master’s thesis, and half had a paper prepared for publication. There were frequent cases when the number of works ranged from 3 to 5. In some cases, students as early as the 5th-6th year were involved in the implementation of national and international projects, took direct part in international conferences, and during the summer holidays worked within the framework of international projects in the laboratories of partners abroad. Almost all graduates of the department who chose a scientific career entered graduate school.
Despite significant successes in the department’s activities, the nationwide situation at the turn of the century did not at all contribute to the authority of science in society, especially among young people. The competition for the specialty “Applied Physics” decreased year by year, to the point that the faculty leadership in 2002 was forced to reduce the number of groups from two to one. A thorough analysis of the situation forced a temporary abandonment of training in the specialization “Physical Problems of Energy”. Instead, the number of applicants who wanted to receive education within the specialization “Physics of Living Systems” steadily increased. Therefore, it was decided to expand the circle of basic institutes for this specialization. From the 2003-2004 academic year, the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Academy of Medical Sciences joined the Institute of Physiology. In these conditions, the primary task was to increase the competition for the specialty of applied physics. However, starting from 2003, this task had to be solved by the new leadership of the department, since Shpak A.P. was appointed director of the Institute of Metal Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In the same year, the head of the department was elected Dr. Sc. Voronov Serhiy Oleksandrovych.
The measures taken by the leadership of the department and the Physico-Technical Institute allowed already in the summer of 2004 to stabilize the recruitment. However, the change in the leadership of the department, the refusal to recruit for the specialization “Physical Problems of Energy” could not but affect the staff of the department. All this led to the fact that during 2004-2007, the composition of teachers changed by a third, and some changes occurred in the curricula. This time coincided with reforms in higher education, first the transition to the bachelor’s-master’s training system, and then to the so-called Bologna system. Despite everything, the main principles of physico-technical education were preserved, the teaching staff of the department gradually found new forms of work with students, including the use of the Internet and modern multimedia tools. The high quality of training of the department’s students was invariably confirmed by the first places of the department’s students in the results of the rector’s control. More than once, the students of the department became winners
