The Department of Physics at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was created at the same time as the institute – in 1898 its organizer and first director was Professor of Kyiv University Georgy DeMetz (1861-1947).
G.G. DeMetz graduated in 1885 from the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiya University (Odessa) and stayed at the university to prepare for the title of professor. In the autumn of 1885, he was seconded to the University of Strasbourg, where he conducted research under the guidance of a prominent German physicist, a scientist and educator, Professor Augustus Kundt. In 1887, Georgiy Grygoriyovych returned to Odessa and began working in the physical laboratory of Professor F. Shvedov. He investigated the mechanical properties of various solutions. In 1889 he defended his master's dissertation, and in 1891 received a doctor's degree. In the same 1891 he was elected an extraordinary professor of physics at the University of Kyiv, and in 1896 – an ordinary professor.
G.G. DeMets stood at the very origins of Kyiv Polytechnic University: on November 25, 1896, he was a participant in the private appointment of entrepreneurs, engineers, professors of the Kyiv University, who developed proposals for the future of the Polytechnic Educational Institution in Kyiv. Then he was a member of the committee for the creation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Construction Commission. It is on the requirements formulated by G.G. DeMetz, premises for a physical laboratory (11 rooms around the Great Physical Audience) were designed and built. DeMetz also ordered the lab equipment best, most of it – from abroad.
In 1899-1910 he worked as a laboratory assistant, teacher of physics O.M.Dinnyk, later professor (1911), academician of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1929), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1946).
DeMetts headed the Department of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute until the autumn of 1919. In 1919 he was elected rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and sent to Rostov-on-Don, which at that time was under the authority of Denikin. As a result, DeMets was able to return to Kyiv only in March 1921, but his application to enter the service at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was not satisfied.
In 1901-1904, Leonid I. Kordysh (1878-1932) conducted laboratory studies with students. In 1904, he was sent to the University of Berlin, worked at the M.Plank Institute of Theoretical Physics and in the physical laboratory in Warburg In 1921, he was elected Professor of the Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and professor of theoretical physics at the Kyiv Institute of Public Education (then called Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University). In 1926 L.I.Kordysh became a correspondent member of VUAN and a member of the Krakow Academy of Sciences. For many years he was almost the only theoretical physicist in Ukraine.
In 1922, the chair was headed by Oleksandr Gol'dman (1884-1971). In 1901-1905 he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University of Kyiv, in 1905-1906 at the University of Leipzig, where he defended his dissertation “Photovoltaic research of cells with solutions of paints” and received a doctorate in philosophy at the Department of Physics if Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 1922 O.G.Goldman founded the Physical Research Laboratory.
In 1923, V.P. Lynyk became a new member of the department, and also from the postgraduate students O.G. Goldman. Subsequently, he showed himself as an outstanding scientist in the field of applied, physical and astronomical optics and became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was twice the winner of the State Prize of the USSR. In Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, V.P. Lynyk, along with V. Y. Lashkaryov, performed work on X-ray optics.
In 1929 O.G.Goldman was elected academician of VUAN. He also became the first director of the Research Institute of Physics, created on the basis of the above-mentioned laboratory. The institute carried out intensive research of semiconductors. Graduates from O. G. Goldman V.E.Lashkaryov, S.D. Gertsriken and N.D.Margulis graduated this institute. Later V.E. Lashkaryov headed the Institute of Semiconductors of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and was elected as the academicians of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; N.D.Margulis was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
In 1930-1938 he was also a member of the Presidium of VUAN and the secretary of the Department of Natural and Mathematic Sciences of the VUAN. In January 1938, he was arrested as an enemy of the people and sentenced to five years of exile, which he served in Kazakhstan. On July 20, 1956, he was rehabilitated, but returned to Kyiv only in late 1959. He was approved by the head of the newly created laboratory of electroluminescence Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Since August, 1941, during the stay of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the evacuation in Tashkent, the chair of physics was headed by associate professor S.P.Lytvynenko, who before the war had joint scientific work with well-known physicists, future academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences K.D. Sinelnikov, IV Kurchatov and A.K. Valter. After the return of the institute from Tashkent, the department was headed by Professor I.D.Fayernman (until 1948). He initiated the creation of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics with the Department of Physics of Metals, the physics of dielectrics and semiconductors, and electronics at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. From 1948, the executors of the duties of the head of the department or the head of the boulevard M.P. Fylyppovych, P.K.Kobushkin, A.E. Levashov In those years V.S. Mashkevych moved from the department to the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the UkrSSR, who, after 30 years, returned to an outstanding physicist, doctor of sciences.
In 1956-1973 the department was headed by prof. M.P. Kulabukhov (1902-1989), who in 1940-1956 was the envoy of the Department of Physics at the University of Tbilisi. M.P. Kulabukhov is a student of the outstanding physicist, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences P. S. Tartakovskyi, professor of the Siberian Physical-Technical Institute, who in the 1930's was a post-graduate student at the Department of Physics of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Thanks to the energetic measures of M.P. Kulabukhov in the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in 1957, a problematic laboratory of semiconductors was opened, where LEDs based on cubic silicon carbide were created and investigated. The laboratory was headed by Yu.M.Altayskyi.
At the laboratory, the cryogenic station was founded, in the creation of which a great merit belongs to M.P. Kalabukhov and engineer M.A. Svertortsyi. Here, liquefied helium was used, which was used for experiments at low temperatures up to 4.2 K. Under the supervision of M.P. Kalabukhov, a number of candidate dissertations were completed and defended for the first time since the founding of the department (V.G.Sydyakin, P.O.Yurachkivskyi, P.K.Gorbenko, V.P.Briginets, A.O.Kovtun, Yu.B.Erlymolovych).
In 1973, the Department of General Physics was headed by Professor M.V. Belous (1930-2008), a graduate of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, a specialist in the field of metal physics.
In 1982, the department was divided into three departments: general and experimental physics, general and theoretical physics, and general physics and physics of solid states. In 1996, they all became part of the newly created Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which first dean was the academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine V.G. Barayakhtar. Since 2007, the faculty is headed by Professor V.V. Vanin.
The first head of the department of general and theoretical physics became professor V.D.Tronko, a well-known specialist in the field of physical optics of magnetic materials. In this department in the years 1973-1987 on the post of professor worked M.P. Kalabukhov. In 1998, the department was headed by Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine V. M. Loktyev, Head of the Department of Nonlinear Physics of Condensed Matter Systems of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. MM Bogolyubov, the world-famous theoretician in the field of solid-state theory, optics, magnetism, low-temperature physics, in particular macroscopic quantum phenomena and crystalline crystals.
The first head of the Department of General and Experimental Physics was Professor V.P. Cherkashyn, a specialist in the field of physical optics of semiconductor materials. Since 1996, the department is headed by a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine Yu.I. Gorobets, Director of the Institute of Magnetism of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, specialist in the field of physics of magnetism and magnetic materials, superconductivity and solid state physics, as well as ecological problems of the consequences of Chornobyl catastrophe.
In 1982, the first speaker of the Department of Physical and Physics of Solid State Physics (ZF and FTT) became M.V. Belous. In 2002-2013, the chair was headed by Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor L.P. Germash (1948-2013 ), a graduate of Odesa Polytechnic. Together with V.G. Barayahtar and V.V. Vanin, she created the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and worked as deputy dean of this faculty.
In 2014-2017, the chair of the ZF and FTT was headed by a doctor of physics and mathematics, professor V.M. Górshkov with experience in universities and research laboratories in England and the United States. Scientific interests are computer simulation of physical processes (syngral optics, plasma optics, quantum chemistry, spintronics, nanosystem physics, nonlinear magneto-electrohydrodynamics, acoustic metamaterials).
From 2017, the department of ZF and FTT is headed by a doctor of technical sciences, professor V.Y.Kotovskyi, from 2012 to 2017 – by Deputy Director of our university for scientific work, laureate of the award of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2015, for the development and implementation of sensor control information technologies, the winner of the All-Ukrainian festival of innovative projects “Sikorsky Challenge 2014: for the development of new generation of metal-ceramic X-ray tubes on the basis of nanocomposite materials for technical and medical diagnostics. Scientific interests – use of infra-red thermography in scientific researches (technical and medical diagnostics, research of biological objects with the help of non-invasive technologies).
The Department of ZF and FTT conducts joint research with the institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. According to the cooperation agreements with the Center of Advanced Material Processing (CAMP - Clarkson University, NY, USA) – Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), NM, USA – Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, students of the Physical Institute have the option to continue education and internship in these scientific research centers.
The Department of ZF and FTT is a graduative chair. It prepares physicists-researchers in specialty 104 - Physics and Astronomy. Specialization – Computer simulation of physical processes. Graduates of the department work both in the scientific sphere – in research institutes and centers of Ukraine, Europe, USA, and in business – in various high-technology non-governmental companies. They deal with such priority areas as, for example, aviation and space systems, nanomaterials, information and telecommunication systems, security, etc.