Research Institute of Oil and Coal Chemical Synthesis

Address: 126 Lermontov St, Irkutsk

Contacts: tel. +7 (3952) 42-48-81

E-mail: director@inus.isu.ru

The mission of the Scientific Research Institute of Oil and Coal Chemical Synthesis (SRIOCCS), founded in 1955 as part of the East-Siberian branch of the Academy of the Sciences of the USSR, was originally oriented on major chemical and petrochemical enterprises in the Irkutsk region where production actively developed and where the developments by scientists in this sphere was in great need.

In the early 1960s during a wave of reforms in education throughout the entire country, science as a field of study and practice was moved to universities to strengthen the academic potential of the field. For this reason, in 1963, the academic institute for both fundamental and applied problems appeared as part of the university.

“Ever since the reforms, the Chemistry Faculty at ISU and SRIOCCS have been closely tied to each other; oftentimes it is even difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins,” director of SRIOCCS Russian Candidate of Science holder (Ph.D.). Many colleagues at the institute are teachers at the Chemistry Faculty. Upperclassmen in laboratories at SRIOCCS prepare certified master's theses in conjunction with their academic advisors. We hold to the classic principle that education is only attained through academic study and research. At our institute there are three departments and seven laboratories in which our professors, teachers, and student-chemists work to create new scientific ideas. Much of the research conducted at the institute saw its beginning in the 1950s when the main fields were catalytic chemistry and in that same vein, complex metal catalysis, organic synthesis and the synthesis of new high-molecular compounds, roentgen-fluorescent analysis, analytical and inorganic chemistry.

Of particular importance is hydrochemistry. Each division is associated with famous scientists. “These scientists were of course my teachers: Fyodor Karlovich Schmidt, the rector of ISU between 1990-1997 who at present is the head of the laboratory of catalysis at the institute; Antonina Nikonovna Smagunova, the department chair of the laboratory of roentgen-fluorescent analysis; the senior teacher Leonty Il'ich Vereschagin, the head research colleague at the institute; Grigory Moiseevich Shpejzer who has been for many years studying the hydro-mineral resources of the planet,” director of SRIOCCS.

The institute is comprised of academic-research schools where knowledge, and most importantly, interest in and passion for research, are conferred. To attract materially students who are drawn by large scientific centers with more opportunities is at the present moment difficult.

For that reason, the interest of the institute is our upper-level graduate students who are the main force driving science all across the world. These enthusiastic people spend a great deal of time in the laboratory, so naturally we want to support them in their endeavors. The goal to rejuvenate our work by preserving our scientific schools stands before us.

A joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to Khubsugul was organized in 1970. Over the course of 2 decades hydro-chemical studies were conducted on the watershed of the Khubsugul lake, the Selenga river, and other bodies of water.