The Kharkiv school of function theory has a history of over 100 years. It is associated with the names of A.M. Lyapunov (1857-1918), S.N. Bernstein (1880-1968), N.I. Akhiezer (1901-1980), B.Ya. Levin (1906-1993). The Department of Function Theory of the ILTPE of NAS of Ukraine was established in 1968 upon initiative of Boris Yakovlevich Levin, who was also the first Head of the Department serving until 1986. From 1986 to 2001 the Department was headed by I.V. Ostrovskii. Since 2001 the Department is being headed by G.M. Feldman.

B.Ya.Levin

 The Department of Function Theory was established on August 14 1968, by executive order of the Director of the Institute for Low Temperature Physics & Engineering of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, B.I.Verkin. The Department was assigned number 33. Neither head of the Department nor any employees were there at the time. The order of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences dated November 20, 1968 appointed B.Ya. Levin as the Head of the Department. A few days later, on November 25, first staff members were transferred to the Department from the Department of Functional Analysis and Computational Mathematics: Senior Research Fellow I.E. Ovcharenko, Junior Research Fellow G.R. Belitskii and engineer P.Z. Agranovich. After that, I.V. Ostrovskii, L.I. Ronkin and V.A. Tkachenko joined the Department. V.V. Zimoglyad joined the Department as a graduate student. In the beginning of 1971, the enumeration of all the departments at the Institute changed, and the Department of Function Theory was assigned number 25, which has been preserved until now. In the end of 1970, after finishing the University graduate school, G.P. Chistyakov joined the Department, and G.M. Feldman entered the Department as graduate student.  In 1971, after graduating from the University, Yu.I. Lyubarskii and N.I. Yakovleva joined the Department. In 1972, M.V. Novitskii, and in 1973 – A.E. Fryntov, joined as graduate students. With the exception of V.V. Zimoglyad, who moved to the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute soon after defending his thesis, all other graduate students, having defended their theses, remained at the Department as staff members. In 1978, S.V. Lvova transferred in the Department from the Department of Functional Analysis and Computational Mathematics. In 1980 A.E. Eremenko moved to Kharkiv from Lviv and joined the Department. That same year, A.M. Russakovskii joined the Department after graduating from the University.  In 1981, L.B. Golinskii and A.Yu. Rashkovskii transferred from the Department of Applied Mathematics. Also, the same year, after finishing grad school and defending his thesis, A.M. Ulanovskii joined staff. In 1987 N.A. Bykov, and in 1989 – M.N. Simbirskii entered the Department as graduate students. After graduating, both joined staff for a short time. In 1989 M.L. Sodin joined the Department, and in 1991 – P.M. Yuditskii. In 1994 S.A. Kupin entered the Department as graduate student. In 1996, A.Ya. Kheifets joined staff. From the beginning of the 90-s, the members of the Department started regularly making trips abroad attending conferences, giving seminar talks and accepting visiting and permanent positions at various universities. The first to leave for a permanent position in USA was A.E. Eremenko in 1992. By mid-2000s, from the Department’s initial staff there remained only P.Z. Agranovich, G.M. Feldman, and L.B. Golinskii, although some of those who left formally remained on the Department staff for a few years. In 2001 L.V. Fardigola joined the Department, and in 2002 – A.I. Danilenko. Also in 2002 M.V. Myronyuk entered as graduate student and joined staff after thesis defense.

DEPARTMENT OF FUNCTION THEORY 1992.
Left to right: G.M.Feldman, L.B.Golinskii, P.M.Yuditskii, A.Yu.Rashkovskii, L.I.Ronkin, A.M.Ulanovskii, Yu.I.Lyubarskii, M.L.Sodin, M.V.Novitskii, P.Z.Agranovich, G.P.Chistyakov