Ivan Vakarčuk

Ivan Oleksandrovych Vakarchuk (; 6 March 1947 – 4 April 2020) was a Ukrainian and Soviet physicist, academic leader, and politician, who contributed to science policy and civil society. From 1990 to 2007 and again between 2010 and 2013 he was rector of the Lviv University. In 2007–2010 he was Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine. He received the Hero of Ukraine award on 5 March 2007. He was father of the leader of the rock band Okean Elzy Svyatoslav Vakarchuk.

Early life Ivan Vakarchuk was born on 6 March 1947 in the village of Brătușeni, Edineț District, Moldavian SSR.

Education In 1965 Vakarchuk received his secondary education by finishing with honours a local middle school in Brătușeni. In 1965–1970 he studied at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Lviv. From 1970 to 1973 he continued his studies at postgraduate research (aspirantura) of the Lviv section of condensed state statistical theory of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, affiliated with the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

In 1974 he defended his candidature thesis "Application of the method of displacements and collective variables in the study of interacting Bose particles near absolute zero", and in 1980 his doctoral thesis "Microscopic theory of Bose liquid". Ivan Vakarchuk represented the Lviv school of statistical physics founded by Ihor Yukhnovskyi, member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Career From 1973 to 1984 Ivan Vakarchuk worked at the Lviv branch of the Institute for Theoretical Physics affiliated with the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (now is the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics of National Academy of Sciences) as junior research fellow, senior researcher and head of quantum statistics department.

After 1984, Vakarchuk began performing the duties of Professor, head of department of theoretical physics at the University of Lviv.

Rector of Lviv University

On 13 November 1990 Ivan Vakarchuk was elected the rector of Lviv University and worked until November 2007.

During the 2004' presidential elections, Vakarchuk openly called students to vote for Viktor Yushchenko and supported a students' strike as part of the Orange Revolution.

Titles and awards Activism Founder and Editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Physics Research" and the popular science magazine "World of Physics" Member of the Commission of state awards and heraldry Member of the Committee on State Prizes of Ukraine in science and technology Vice-President of the Union of rectors of higher educational establishments of Ukraine Member of the editorial board of the journal "Higher Education in Ukraine" Chairman of the board of the Lviv Regional Peace Council President of the Ukrainian Physical Society Member of the Council on Science and Science and Technology Policy under the President of Ukraine Member of the organizing committee for the preparation and celebration of the 1020th anniversary of Baptism of Kyivan Rus

Awards and titles Order of Merit, 3rd class (February 2005) Hero of Ukraine (Order of State, 2007) and Oleh (b. 1980) - a bank employee.

Death Vakarchuk died on 4 April 2020, at the age of 73 in Lviv. The cause of his death was not reported.