THE BRIGHTEST PAGES OF THE 75-YEAR HISTORY OF THE FACULTY OF GEOLOGY OF THE IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV

Abstract

The preconditions for the opening of the Faculty of Geology, its history and the most impor-tant achievements during 1945–2010 and the last decade (2011–2020) are briefly analyzed. Geology at the University began with mineralogical collections of the Cabinet of Natural History, inherited from the Jesuit College, on the basis of which the University of Lviv was founded in 1661, as well as with activities at the Faculty of Philosophy in the late XVII century of Prof. Belsazar Hacquet (the first geologist at the University, whose name is associated with mineralogical and petrographic studies of the Trans-Dniester region flints and minerals of the Carpathians) and our compatriot Count Stanisław Dunin-Borkowski (he laid the foundations of chemical and mineralogical research of geological objects in his own laboratory near Lviv). The Faculty of Geology was founded in 1945 and had seven Departments: Mineralogy, Crys-tallography, Petrography, Geophysics, General Geology, Historical Geology and Palaeontology, Geology of the USSR. Such outstanding scientists and teachers, professors and future academicians as Oleg Vialov, Yevhen Lazarenko, Volodymyr Porfiriev, Volodymyr Selskyi, Volodymyr Sobolev, Seraphim Subbotin successfully worked at the Faculty and made a significant contribution to the develop-ment of scientific research and training of geologists. The achievements of the scientific schools formed at the Faculty, the brightest achievements of the Faculty in scientific research and training of highly qualified geologists and ecologists, the contribution of graduates of the Faculty to the development of mineral resources of Ukraine and other countries are characterized. Information on the latest changes in the structure of the Faculty is given: seven Departments have been reorganized into four – General and Historical Geology and Palaeontology; Mineral-ogy, Petrography and Geochemistry; Minerals Geology and Geophysics; Ecological and Engi-neering Geology and Hydrogeology. Twelve educational and research laboratories have been combined into six.