Ivan Vakarchuk

Date of Birth: 06.03.1947

Place of Birth. Education. The native son of the village of Starye Bratushany in the Jedinetsky district of the Moldavian SSR. In 1970, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics at I. Franko State University of Lviv. He defended his doctoral thesis in 1974 and received his doctorate in 1980.

Career. From 1973 to 1978, Vakarchuk was a research associate at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (Lviv Division). From 1978 to 1980, he worked there as a senior researcher.

From 1980 to 1984, he headed the Department of Quantum Statistics at the Lviv Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (Lviv Division).

From 1984 to 1990, he was a professor at the Department of Theoretical Physics at I. Franko University of Lviv.

In 1990, he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was elected rector of I. Franko State University of Lviv twice (1990 and 2001).

In 1991, Vakarchuk was elected president of the Small Academy of Sciences of Lviv Oblast. In 1996, he became the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physical Studies and the Journal of Physics. In the same year, he was elected by university heads in Lviv as the chairman of the Lviv rectors' council.

In the year he was re-elected as rector of I. Franko State University of Lviv, Vakarchuk was also elected president of the Ukrainian Physical Society.

On December 18, 2007, he was appointed Minister of Education and Science in the Timoshenko Cabinet from the 'Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense' bloc. He replaced socialist Stanislav Nikolajenko. He lost his position after the government resigned following Viktor Yanukovych's victory in the presidential elections.

From 2010 to 2013 he was rector of I. Franko University of Lviv.

Awards. He was awarded letters of recognition from the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and an honorary badge from the President of Ukraine. He holds the title for popular education of the Ukrainian SSR. He is a recipient of the State Prize of Ukraine for Science and Technology. He is a Knight of the State Order of the Italian Republic 'Star of Italian Solidarity'.

Family. Vakarchuk is married. His wife, Svetlana Alexandrovna, was a physics teacher, a lecturer at the Lviv National Academy of Veterinary Medicine S. Gzhitsky.

His son Svyatoslav Vakarchuk is the frontman of the popular band 'Okean Elzy', chairman of the Golos party, and a member of the Ukrainian parliament of the IX convocation.

His son Oleg (born in 1980) is a bank employee, married, and his daughter Marichka (born in 2005).

Death. Ivan Vakarchuk passed away on April 4, 2020, at the age of 74.

04.04.2020