Department of Physics and Chemistry

1930 can be considered the date of the department foundation when the Institute was founded in Tomsk. Tomsk State University (Head of the Department of Physics, M. A. Bolshanina) and the Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology (Director V. D. Kuznetsov) contributed a lot, providing departmental staff as well as facilities and equipment. However, after the institute moving to Omsk in 1961, practically everything had to be re-stored.

Currently 16 academics teach at the department, including two Professors, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, 14 Associate Professors and 1 Senior Lecturer.

The Department conducts postgraduate (PhD) studies, scientific supervisor is Professor I. I. Gontchar.

Great attention is paid to research and methodological work. Practical and laboratory operations manuals for all sections of physics and chemistry have been issued. They are used by full-time and part-time students.

The department staff is actively involved in research work. The department carries out a state budget funded research “Search of new ways of improving educational process in Physics and Chemistry”.

The group led by Professor I. I. Gontchar is especially active in research work. He worked as a Visiting Professor abroad on many occasions — in Germany, Belgium, France, Australia. Associate professor L. A. Litnevskiy worked as a visiting academic in France, Associate Professor R. S. Kurmanov — in the USA, Associate Professor S. N. Smerdin — in Germany, Associate Professor V. L. Litnevskiy — in Japan.

Currently there are more than 1,500 references to the research papers of Professor I. I. Gontchar and his co-authors (including PhD students and departmental staff) in the journals included into Scopus and Web of Science databases. The most cited article has about 300 references. Hirsch index of professor Gontchar is 19 according to RSCI, 15 according to SCOPUS, 17 according to ISI Web of Science.

The results of scientific research are published in foreign and Russian journals, presented at the national and international conferences.

According to the FSES 3+ standard, students of OSTU study physics during 2–4 semesters. Academic courses working programs and assessment teaching aids have been elaborated for all educational programs and majors. All studies are provided at a high scientific and methodological level.

For many years the rating system has been used at the department both for teaching and knowledge assessment of students and schoolers.

Great attention is paid to the perspective students recruitment by the staff of the department. They work with schoolchildren at the faculty of pre-university training (preparatory courses of various durations, pre-university training centers of the Western-Siberian Railways).