Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University

Odessa II Mechnikov National University is the leading scientific and educational center of modern Ukraine, the first higher educational institution in the southern region of the country. The origins of university education in the south of Ukraine reach the beginning of the XIX century, to be exact, in 1817 - the time of the founding of the famous Richelieu lyceum. At first the lyceum existed as a closed educational institution for the children of noblemen, but at the beginning of the third decade of its existence, thanks to the reforms of the trustee D. M. Knyazhevich, the lyceum on the structure and content of education approached the university system. The impetus for the transformation of the lyceum into the university was provided by the well-known scientist NI Pirogov, who in the mid-1850s was the trustee of the Odessa academic district, and the completion of the process was already in the next decade.   The Imperial Novorossiysk University opened the doors for the first students on May 1 (13), 1865, as part of three faculties-the History, Philology, Physics and Mathematics and Law, and in 1900 the fourth medical faculty was founded. Practically from the first decade of its existence Novorossiysk University became the leader of science and higher education, played a significant role in the social life of the city and the region. Teaching and auxiliary institutions: Teaching and Student Pirogov's libraries, Paleontological and Zoological museums, Astronomical Observatory, Botanical Garden, Hydrobiological station, laboratories and offices occupied a significant place in the university's academic work. Actively acted Novorossiysk Society of Naturalists, Historical and Philological Society at INU and the Odessa Bibliographic Society, whose members took part in the organization and conduct of domestic and foreign scientific congresses. At this time, the university's face was determined by scientists who later became the "golden treasure" of world science: the future Nobel laureate microbiologist II Mechnikov, mathematician Alexander Lyapunov, physicist Fedor Shvedov, physiologist Ivan Sechenov, ophthalmologist Vladimir Filatov, historian Fedor Uspensky, Slavicist Victor Grigorovich.