The University Celebrates the 179th Anniversary of the Birth of Ilya Mechnikov

On May 15, 1845, in the village of Ivanivka, Kupyansk (now the village is called Mechnikove), Ilya Mechnikov was born. He became the first person of Ukrainian descent to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Ilya Mechnikov had a thirst for knowledge from a young age. In the 6th grade, he visited a university professor of embryology with a request to study protoplasm under his guidance. However, the boy was refused, as "he should finish gymnasium and enter the university." So he did: he graduated from the Second Kharkiv Gymnasium with a gold medal, and in 1862 he entered the Natural Science department of the School of Physics-mathematics of Kharkiv University.

By the way, Ilya Ilyich completed his studies at the university in two years (instead of the standard four), brilliantly passed his final exams, and in December 1864, at the age of 19, he became a phd in physical-mathematical sciences.

In 1908, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Ilya Mechnikov, and soon the scientist received an invitation to the award ceremony. However, Ilya Ilyich declined the invitation, as to his great regret, he had to refrain, since this time was during lectures at the Pasteur Institute, where his presence was absolutely necessary. And already in June 1909, Mechnikov arrived in Stockholm to deliver the Nobel lecture "The Present State of the Question of Immunity in Infectious Diseases."

For Ilya Mechnikov, science was more important than any ceremonies. The scientist devoted his entire life to knowledge. From childhood, when the boy collected herbaria in Dvorichanshchyna, to the zenith of his career when he made fundamental discoveries: the theoretical and practical substantiation of intracellular digestion, the revelation of the essence of inflammation, the creation of the phagocytic theory of immunity, teachings on antibiotics, and the development of the concept of longevity.

A leading scientist who made a significant contribution not only to zoology, microbiology, embryology, and immunology, but to the development of world science as a whole. An outstanding humanist, original thinker, enlightener, founder of the first microbiology laboratory in Ukraine and the second in the world — his science and creativity are inexhaustible, and his ideas are immortal. Kharkiv University is proud that among a whole galaxy of outstanding graduates shines the name of the great scientist Ilya Mechnikov.