Mykhailo Ostrohradsky’s Birthday: The University Commemorates

September 24 marks the 225th anniversary of the birth of Mykhailo Ostrohradsky, an outstanding Ukrainian mathematician, mechanician, physicist, and academician whose scientific works made a significant contribution to the development of world science.

After graduating from gymnasium, Ostrohradsky planned to pursue a military career, but his uncle persuaded him to enroll at Kharkiv University. This decision proved fateful and determined the course of his future scientific career.

At Kharkiv University, Ostrohradsky studied at the School of Physics and Mathematics, where his interest in mathematics and mechanics developed. He later continued his scientific work abroad, became an academician, and gained international recognition.

Ostrohradsky’s scientific legacy encompasses mathematical analysis, calculus of variations, number theory, analytical mechanics, hydromechanics, and mathematical physics. One of his best-known results is the Ostrohradsky formula, which is still used today in mathematical physics, mechanics, and engineering.

In 1859, Ostrohradsky was elected an honorary member of Kharkiv University, and in 2001, by a UNESCO decision, he was included in the list of outstanding mathematicians of the world. The name of Mykhailo Ostrohradsky will forever be associated with Kharkiv and Karazin University, which once became the starting point of his journey into world science.

Mykhailo Ostrohradsky’s birthday is an opportunity to remember a scientist whose discoveries were ahead of their time and continue to contribute to science today.