Nina Virchenko

Nina Opanasivna Virchenko (; born May 5, 1930) is a Ukrainian mathematician, academic, author, and member of the Ukrainian resistance movement. While a student in Kyiv in 1948, she was arrested on charges of Ukrainian nationalism, and was a political prisoner in a gulag in Eastern Siberia for six years.

On her return to Kyiv, she was able to return to university in 1956, going on to graduate school in 1961. She went on to study mathematics and become a professor of mathematics at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Virchenko was finally awarded her PhD in 1988, with a dissertation on integral equations. As well as mathematical studies, she has published on the history of mathematics and repressed mathematicians in Ukraine, as well as books for the general public.

Early life and education

Nina Virchenko was born on May 5, 1930, in Zavadivka, a village in Ukraine. Her mother was a midwife and her father was a former officer of the Ukrainian People's Army. In 1937, the family moved to Chervone. Virchenko attended Zhytomyr School No. 36. When she was a teenager, she gave herself the pseudonym Ужма (UZHMA), which was an acronym for Ukrainian—Woman—Mathematician—Astronomer. In 1947 at age 16, she passed the entrance examination to Moscow University, but enrolled to study mathematics at the National University of Kyiv (KSU) as her parents did not want her to move so far away. In 2016, Virchenko was one of over 80 former Soviet political prisoners who co-signed an appeal to the Dutch public to vote in favour of the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement.

Virchenko had been interested in the work of Ukrainian mathematician Mikhail Kravchuk for some time. When she learned that he had died in a gulag, she began studying his life and mathematical legacy. organized a series of international mathematical meetings in his honor from 1992, the 100th anniversary of his birth, and advocated for a monument in his honor. Riabokrys also filmed a short documentary about Virchenko, titled ужма (UZMA).

Academic career

In 1965, Virchenko became an assistant professor in mathematics at KSU. From 1974 to 1990, she was an assistant professor of mathematics at then National Technical University of Ukraine (now called Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute), promoted to professor in 1990. She was awarded a PhD in 1988, for her dissertation, Dual (Triple) Integral Equations (in Russian). Virchenko's studies included special functions, integral equations, and partial differential equations.

As well as over 350 scientific publications in mathematics,

She has received several awards and honours, including the Yaroslav the Wise Award from the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1999), medal "Building of Ukraine" (2001), Medal of Andrew the First-Called (2005), badge from the Ministry of Education and Science "Petro Mohyla" (2007), and Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine (2006).

Personal life

Virchenko married writer and translator Rostyslav Dotsenko (19 April 1931 – 24 October 2012) in 1964. Dotsenko was also a former political prisoner. They had two children.