History of the department

The Department of occupational safety and environmental protection was
founded when the Institute of Railway Transport Engineers named after S. M.
Kirova was established as the Department of Chemistry on March 23, 1930. The
first head of the Department of Chemistry was Associate Professor A.V. Lipatov.
Later, the department was headed by Professor L. M. Andreasov.

In 1937, the Department was united with the multi-industry laboratory of the
Kharkiv branch of the Moscow Institute of Materials and Metals of the People’s
Commissariat of Transport, which was established earlier, in 1924. At that time,
the department had about 50 employees. Employees of the department studied
problems of quality control of coal from all mines in Donbass: they studied its
composition, ash fusibility, analyzed lubricants, metals, silicates and water.
During the Great Patriotic War, the institute was evacuated to Uzbekistan, in
Tashkent. In 1943, when the Institute of Railway Transport was in Tashkent, the
department was headed by a well-known scientist, Doctor of Technical Sciences,
professor N. B. Radvinskiy.

Doctor of Technical Sciences,professor N. B. Radvinskiy

In 1971, Dr. Sci. Eng. professor N. Sh. Safiulin was appointed the Head of the
Department of Chemistry. In the following decade, under his supervision, the
employees of the Department completed more than 100 studies and received 16
author’s certificates. The model of a pilot plant for wastewater treatment received
a bronze medal at the All-Union Exhibition of Achievements of the National
Economy in Moscow in 1977.

In 1972, the Department of Occupational Safety was established on the basis of
the Departments of Chemistry and Transportation and Safety. The first head of
the Department was Oleksandr F. Ignatiev, PhD in Sci. Eng., professor, rector of
the Kharkiv Institute of Railway Engineers. In 1990, the department was renamed
as the Department of Occupational Safety and Environmental Protection. From
1972 to 1983, the department was headed by PhD in Sci. Eng. Associate
Professor L. M. Kalenichenko, a specialist in railway construction.

In the period from 1983 to 2006, the department was headed by Dr. Sci. Eng.
professor O.V. Shapka, specialist in chemical technology and ecology, author of
more than 140 scientific papers, 3 monographs, 2 textbooks, 4 inventions and one patent; he supervised postgraduate studies in specialty 05.17.01 Technology
of Inorganic Substances.

From September 2006 to June 2016, the department was headed by Dr. Sci.
Eng. professor Mykhaylo I. Vorozhbiyan, author of more than 250 scientific
papers, including 2 textbooks, 3 study guides, 14 patents; he supervised the
postgraduate study in specialty 05.17.01 Technology of Inorganic Substances.

Since September 2016, the department has been headed by Oleg V. Kostyrkin,
PhD in Sci. Eng., Associate Professor. He is an author of more than 130
publications, including more than 90 scientific ones, 2 textbooks, 2 patents
(author’s certificates). He has been a teacher at the Department of Occupational
Safety and Environmental Protection since 1993, from 1997 to 2003 he was a
deputy dean of the Faculty of Transportation Process Management, since 2015
he entered the doctoral program of the Ukrainian State University of Railway
Transport. The area of scientific activity is the study of the effect of BaO, CoO,
Fe2O3, and Al2O3 oxides that are used in composite materials on protective
properties of the latter against electromagnetic radiation and the creation of new
protective composite materials based on these oxides; issues of civil protection
and emergency situations on the railway. The main academic subjects taught
include: civil protection and industrial occupational safety, chemistry, basics of
ecology, civil protection, theory of combustion and explosion.