Maksym Strikha

Maksym Vitaliyovych Strikha (; born 24 June 1961) is a Ukrainian physicist, writer, translator, publicist, and public figure. He was the Deputy Ministry of Education and Science from 2008 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2019. He was also the president of Ukrainian Physical Society, member of PEN Ukraine and National Writers' Union of Ukraine (NSPU).

Early life and education Strikha was born on 24 June 1961 in Kyiv into a family of scientists. His parents were and . He received his early education at Secondary School No. 58 in Kyiv. In 1983, he graduated from the Faculty of Radiophysics, Electronics and Computer Systems at the University of Kyiv (KNU). He later pursued postgraduate studies at the Ioffe Institute and completed his doctoral studies at the Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1999, he began leading scientific programmes at the Institute of Open Politics.

From 2005 to 2010, Strikha served as deputy head of the Ukrainian Republican Party (URP). In early February 2008, Strikha was appointed deputy minister of education and science of Ukraine.

On 1 January 2018, Strikha was awarded the academic title of professor. That same year, he joined other prominent figures in signing an appeal for a political boycott of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, condemning the persecution of Ukrainian political prisoners, including film director Oleh Sentsov, who had launched a hunger strike to demand their release.

In February 2019, Strikha and Ivan Malkovych resigned from PEN Ukraine in protest against a unilateral statement made by its new leadership. The statement supported a student from the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture who had mocked a veteran instructor from the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), prompting outrage among some members. Later that year, on 17 October, Strikha had written another open letter to Maksym Tymoshenko, criticising the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music's decision to ban Ukrainian-language performances in favour of original-language-only productions. On 25 November, Strikha joined a group of prominent Ukrainian scientists, writers, linguists, and cultural figures in sending an open letter to Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Volodymyr Borodiansky. The letter voiced strong concern over the growing marginalisation of the Ukrainian language in national opera houses and music education.

Literacy career Strikha has been actively involved in literary translation since the early 1980s. His contributions include two literary monographs, a book of poems titled Sonnets and Octaves (1991), and numerous essays on literature and literary criticism. He developed and advocated for the concept of the nation-building role of translating Ukrainian literature within the field of translation studies.

In addition to these works, Strikha has translated notable pieces such as Martin's Lie, the libretto of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera (2018), Francesca da Rimini, the libretto of Sergei Rachmaninoff's opera (2019), and Sophronia on the Fire (from Jerusalem Delivered), which became the basis for the libretto of Oksana Yevsyukova's opera (2023).

Personal life Strikha is married to , a senior researcher at the Institute of History of Ukraine. They have a daughter, , who is a translator, literary critic, and a Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University. He is multilingual, speaking English, Italian, Polish, Russian, and French.

Awards He has been bestowed upon the following awards and honours: Lauro Dantesco (2013) Maksym Rylsky Prize (2015)

Hryhorii Kochur Award (2021)

S.I. Pekar Prize (2024)