Kharkiv university staff return to work as best they can

The city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine has been gravely damaged by Russian shelling. Many professors were forced to flee but some stayed behind. Professor Nikolay Mchedlov-Petrossyan, head of physical chemistry at VN Karazin Kharkiv National University, is one of them. He recently returned to his office, where he teaches online and conducts research as best he can, writes Stefan Weichert for The Scientist.

In May, Russian forces withdrew from the edge of Kharkiv, but they remain close by, carrying out daily shelling of the suburbs. Mchedlov-Petrossyan acknowledges that the risk of death persists, but says he doesn’t want to be controlled by fear. Like other faculty and administrators at the university, he is striving to continue his work and plan for the future amidst the war.

VN Karazin Kharkiv National University was founded in 1804 and is the second oldest university in Ukraine. Three Nobel Prize winners have attended the university over the years. Now, rector Tetyana Kaganovska fears that the war will deal a massive blow to the university. Not all research can continue on campus, she says, noting that “there are fields of science like physics, chemistry and biology where . . . scientists cannot do their research online. And now the main task is how to help them to prolong their work,” she says.
Full report on The Scientist site