Ukraine has given the world many famous mathematicians: Vladimir Arnold (Odessa), Mikhail Voronoi (Chernihiv region), Izrail Gelfand (Odessa region), Vladimir Drinfeld (Kharkiv), Mykhailo Kravchuk (Volyn region), Mark Krein (Kyiv), Yuri Manin (Simferopol, Crimea), Mikhail Ostrogradsky (Poltava region), Anatoliy Skorokhod (Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region), Alexander Ostrovsky (Kyiv), Olga Oliynyk (Kyiv region), Pavel Urison (Odessa), Mykola Chebotaryov (Kamyanets-Podilskiy, Khmelnytsky region), and others. However, most of them have left Ukraine for Russia, the USA, Canada, or Western Europe.

After the Bolshevik coup in 1917 the communist leadership took unprecedented steps to ruin the Ukrainian school of mathematics and other sciences. The famous Kyiv school of algebra was liquidated. Some professors (Schmidt, Chebotaryov, and Delaunay) were transferred to Moscow and Petrograd. Others, like Kravchuk, were persecuted. Moscow thus became the scientific center and Ukrainian science was invalidated. During the decades that followed, gifted graduates of Ukrainian high schools went to universities in Moscow, Leningrad, and Novosibirsk that practiced USSR-wide selection of “wunderkinder” and other young hopefuls. Besides, tuition was better there and graduation diplomas prestigious.

The situation changed after the Soviet Union broke up. Growing subsistence expenses and the absence of any support from the government stopped the outflow of young school graduates from Ukraine to Russia. Besides, patriotic motives played a certain role. Since the best pupils were no longer taken to Russia for further studies, the level of Ukrainian high school students and graduates rose significantly. They won an impressive number of prizes at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students (http://www.imc-math.org) and other international student contests. Ukraine has a huge academic potential of brilliant teachers and talented students, but this does not mean, very unfortunately, that the best graduates will achieve something great in science and stay in Ukraine.

There is an eloquent fact: since independence in 1991, almost no winners in international school math contests (except Olexandr Rybak from Kyiv who won the 2002 contest and Varvara Shepelska from Kharkiv who won in 2003) have stayed in Ukraine. Yuliy Sannikov from Sevastopol, Crimea, who won international math contests in 1994, 1995, and 1996 (one of the best records in the history of international math contests), then graduated with honors from the math department of Princeton University and successfully completed a post-graduate course in economics at Stanford University. Now he is an assistant professor at the economics department of the University of California and the finance department of New York University.

Pavlo Pilyavsky from Vinnytsia who won math contests in 1998 and 1999, the silver medal in 1997, and the bronze medal in 1996, graduated from the math department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now is an assistant professor with the math department of the University of Michigan.

Maxim Fedorchuk from Kyiv, who won math contests in 1999 and 2000, graduated from the math department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now taking a post-graduate course at the math department of Harvard University.

Halyna Dobrovolska from Kyiv, who won the 2004 contest and got the bronze in 2003, is now a third-year student at the math department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Students and young scientists have very limited academic and professional opportunities in Ukraine due to several factors.

1. Most Ukrainian families balance on the poverty line, university and college students receive miserable stipends, and academic salaries are very low. For example, a math professor in Ukraine receives as much as a janitor of a big apartment bloc and twice less than a private babysitter – too little to support a wife and a child. Most university professors have to lecture in two or three other universities. Those extra jobs leave no time for science. Subsequently, fewer and fewer graduates choose academic careers.

2. The general professional level of university teachers is rather low due to emigration of the best professors. Teaching methods and forms are outdated; academics of higher rank or position treat their younger colleagues and students as “inferiors”; the higher schools and research institutions use outdated equipment and have limited or no access to communication; the libraries can not afford new foreign publications; there are no bonuses or other material incentives for writing research papers in leading scientific periodicals.

As a result, Ukrainian scientists can not communicate with their foreign colleagues, apply for international conferences and programs in time, and place their research articles in electronic journals and archives.

3. The management of science and education is below criticism. Ukrainian scientific organizations have no representation in international structures.

Any comparison between Germany’s Max Planck Institut (MPI) and Ukraine’s Institute of Mathematics under the National Academy of Sciences (IM) would not be in the latter’s favor. The IM research staff numbers 150 people. The IM management consists of the director, three assistant directors, the academic secretary, and 16 department chiefs. There is an academic council under the directorate, which includes basically members and correspondent members of the NAS and the same department chiefs. The youngest of six academicians is 70 and all correspondent members except one have reached retirement age.

In the MPI six people work on a permanent basis and 100 researchers, invited from leading German and international mathematic centers, work there on a rotation basis between one month and several years. The MPI has only three permanent positions: two directors (who replace each other every two years) and one academic secretary.

Research work in the IM is basically conducted in the departments according to five-year research programs approved by the NAS Presidium. Each department submits its summary report upon completing each program and holds regular seminars to review the results achieved by fellow researchers. This year the institute has held two scientific conferences. The academic council holds a session twice a month and full attendance is compulsory. The agenda is standard: “item one – a research report; item two – academic and organizational issues; item three – miscellaneous”.

In the MPI research work is conducted in provisional groups and permanent workshops. Every year the institute holds several activity semesters that last between three and six months, inviting other scientists to deliver their papers at regular conferences. This year the MPI has held two activity semesters and eight conferences. Every three years leading scientists (not necessarily working with the institute) submit a summary report on the basic fields of research to the Max Planck Society, which then evaluates the institute’s performance and makes decisions on funding it during the next three years.

Both institutes have approximately the same number of rooms for researchers. However, in MPI every research assistant has his or her own working place fully equipped with modern telecommunications, which lets them receive information on new scientific publications coming to the library (which works 24 hours a day), on seminars, new grants, and conferences constantly. The MPI library provides free access to practically all electronic mathematics journals (Electronic journals; Springer eBooks 2005—2007; Encyclopedia of Mathematics; Banach Center Publications; (Ovid) Databases; Lecture Notes in Mathematics; Science Citation Index (Web of Science); MathSciNet; Zentralblatt der Mathematik).

It is well known that one of the most important criteria for scientist’s performance evaluation (scientist’s “productivity”) is citing of his or her scientific works. For instance, American Mathematics Society has a worldwide recognized database of scientific citing. This database exists for several years and keeps track of scientific citing of the last seven-ten years. According to this database, the best results of MPI’s researchers are the following: Yu. Manin – 1794 (references to his scientific works) – 1309 (authors of these references) – 284 (publications, of which he is one of the authors), D. Zagier (1390 — 930 — 135); F. Hirzebruch (866 — 719 — 133); G. Faltings (851 — 549 — 83); W. Ballmann (551 — 334 — 46). And the best results of five research assistants from Ukraine’s Institute of Mathematics under the National Academy of Sciences are the following (from ethical considerations – without names): the first place — 489 (references to his scientific works) — 248 (authors of these references) — 223 (publications, of which he is one of the authors); 2^nd — (326 — 185 — 94); 3^rd — (332 — 205 — 405); 4^th — (300 — 46 — 166); 5^th — (220 — 188 — 167).

According to ISI Web of Knowledge, Ukraine is 41^st in the world in scientific citing for the last 10 years (42490 research works – 130500 references – 3.07 references to one research work), Germany is the third after USA and England (726850 research works – 7692444 references – 10.58 references to one research work) and our neighbors Russia and Poland are 18^th and 25^th. Analyzing the scientific citing indices in mathematics only, Ukraine occupies 36^th place in the world (1812 research works – 3155 references – 1.74 references to one research work) and Germany occupies third place after USA and France (17915 research works — 58222 references — 3.25 references to one research work). I would also like to note that Ukraine ranks 26^th by scientific citing in Physics, 36^th in Chemistry, 49^th in Molecular Biology and Genetics and 55^th in IT. Russia and Poland have much better positions: 11^th and 15^th in Mathematics, 6^th and 14^th in Physics, 14^th and 17^th in Chemistry, 20^th and 27^th in Molecular Biology and Genetics, 28^th and 25^th in IT.

Considering scientific citing indices of separate scientific organizations and Universities the National Academy of Sciences (the only Ukrainian representative that made it onto the world’s list of 3 thousand scientific institutions) ranks 667^th in scientific citing in all fields of science, Russian Academy of Sciences ranks 47^th, Polish Academy of Sciences – 264^th, Slovakia and Bulgaria are also in front of us – 548^th and 607^th, Moscow State University – 252^nd, and even Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) – 306^th and Universidad de Chile (Chile) – 536^th . In some fields of science like Physics and Chemistry NAS of Ukraine has slightly better indices of scientific citing – 306^th and 336^th places (for comparison – Physics: MPI – first place, Russian Academy of Science – fifth, Polish Academy of Science – 102^nd; Chemistry: MPI – first place, Russian Academy of Science – 7^th, Polish Academy of Science – 56^th).

4. The standards of Ukrainian scientific journals, conferences and other scientific activities are very low. This doesn’t let our scientists bring the results of their research work to the world scientific community or to receive the latest information on modern international science development and on scientific and technological innovations.

5. The next factor that limits academic and professional opportunities for young scientists in Ukraine is the absence of scientific societies in our country.

What should be done to improve the situation?

The scientists who left Ukraine to work abroad have started creating an American Fund for Ukrainian science support. One of their main tasks is to look for sponsors to finance scientific projects in Ukraine. They have also organized a working (coordinating) group consisting of famous scientists, political and community leaders and business representatives that will be focused on creation and effective realization of projects for Ukrainian science and Ukrainian young scientists support.

Their first step in this direction is a young mathematicians contest established by Shevchenko Scientific Society in America and Ukraine-USA fund (the announcement about this contest can be found at the Society’s web-site and in ZN). In the future, they are planning to conduct such contests among young physicists, biologists, chemists and other research assistances.

Regarding Ukrainian domestic programs for science support, I can point out that in 2001/2002, 2002/2003 and recent academic years, the Institute of Mathematics under National Academy of Science of Ukraine has conducted a series of lectures on scientific works of leading world mathematicians and established a Mykhaylo Ostrogradsky scholarship for the ten best students.

This yielded some positive results and we plan to continue such work in the future. The lectures could be organized at leading mathematics centers of Ukraine, for example, at Ukrainian mathematics society and local centers.

Unfortunately, the main problem on the way to realization of our plans is the absence of sponsor and grant support of mathematics in Ukraine. We appeal to everybody who is concerned about the development of national mathematic science. With substantial financial support from separate persons and organizations Ukrainian mathematics society would be able to establish nominal grants, prizes and scholarships for students and young scientists to enable them to achieve outstanding results without leaving Ukraine. We would accept any financial support with gratitude and guarantee that it would be used for development of mathematics in Ukraine.

We hope that the President of Ukraine will put the Conception of Science Development in Ukraine into effect according to his decree from October 3 2005 #1183/2005-rp (http://www.nas.gov.ua/knk/pages/koncepc/koncepcm.html).

We should remember that mathematics is the “queen of sciences”.