This year’s Master’s graduate of the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies Ostap Lishchynskyi in his second year of bachelor’s degree realized that he had an interest in science. Thus he started working in the laboratory, researching his favorite topic, participating in national and international competitions and conferences.
– My love for chemistry began in the 7th grade, when additional subjects appeared in the school schedule. I loved Chemistry most of all. It fascinated me. I was interested in any laboratory or practical work, any chemical reactions that cause colour change. Immediately, questions arose and I searched for answers: why is this happening? Very quickly I started to participate in the All-Ukrainian Olympiads and win prizes, says Ostap.
Many were surprised by this interest, as most pupils do not like Chemistry. However, the boy, apparently, loved the statement of the creator of the well-known periodic table Dmitri Mendeleev that chemistry is a realm of miracles, where human happiness is hidden and it is chemistry that most overtakes the human brain.
So it is natural that when Ostap finished school, he did not see an alternative to chemistry. He was just hesitating which university to choose – Ivan Franko University or Lviv Polytechnic. He could also be successfully enrolled at the universities of Kyiv and Dnipro, but Lviv remained in first place. Arguments in favour of Polytechnic prevailed: higher technical education and good feedback from chemistry students.
When Ostap entered, he associated his future profession with work at the enterprise, in the laboratory, that is with production processes. But already in the second year he realized he needed more than what academic staff offered. So he went on a tour of the Departments, laboratories, learning what they are researching. The Department of Organic Chemistry was the closest, he got interested in the research conducted by Yurii Stetsyshyn, the Associate Professor of this Department. He acquainted the guy with his work and showed the laboratory.
Since then, the student began his scientific activities, joining the research. In six months, in collaboration with Associate Professor Stetsyshyn, he wrote an interesting project to the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The project was successful. And the Queen Jadwiga Foundation provided the student with a scholarship for a two-month internship at the Jagiellonian University, as well as for implementation of his own projects in these laboratories twice a year.
– If we talk about the possibility of creating materials, then our researchers are able to do it at a fairly good level, no worse than foreign ones. But it is difficult for us to analyze and investigate the properties for a trivial reason: there is a lack of equipment. That’s why we have to send samples of materials to different laboratories, because we don’t have all the possibilities to be concentrated in one laboratory. At Jagiellonian University, everything can be done within a few floors of one building, only by agreeing on the time of your research in advance.
It was then that Ostap was awarded a Presidential Scholarship – for successful study and student achievements in science. Among the various activities he participated in during his studies there was participation in the BioSmart Lab workshop at the already mentioned Jagiellonian University, the international scientific conference «Chemical Problems of the Present» held in Vinnytsia at Donetsk National University, and the EastWest Chemistry Conference in the University of Palermo (Italy), about which he enthusiastically says:
– Since at the poster session of the previous conference, which took place at our Polytechnic, I won first place, it guaranteed me free participation in the next one, in Palermo. I like science tourism because it is an opportunity to take part in various events, meet with colleagues from different countries, communicate with them, make speeches, join discussions, gain new experience, and get to know the country itself.
And this year in winter there was one more competition for chemistry students – «To the Top with Roshen». Despite the vacation, the boy managed to quickly collect documents about his achievements and become one of its fellows.
Ostap Lishchynsky lives not only by chemistry. For many years he has been singing in two choirs – the church in his parish and the folk «Lira», and also enjoys cycling.
Now he is preparing to apply for postgraduate courses. At the Jagiellonian University he met a professor from Brazil, who arranged his scientific achievements into a training course and teaches students from different countries. Ostap dreams to do the same.
