[1]OSTCHEM Company being part of Dmitry Firtash’s Group DF has become a General Sponsor of Ukraine’s High School Olympic Team participating in the 44th International Chemistry Olympiad to take place on July 21- 30, 2012 in Washington D.C. (http://www.icho2012.org/). The company has undertaken this initiative in pursuit of its cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports.
The official sponsorship announcement was made by Dr. Yuriy Kholin, Vice-President of Kharkiv National V.N. Karazin University. “OSTCHEM has chosen to be the general sponsor of the Ukrainian Olympic team and to finance the acquisition of chemical equipment required for students’ training for the international competition. This is an up-to-date set of equipment similar to what is used at international Olympiads. The upgrade of our lab resources will enable the team’s quality preparation for the competition,” said Dr. Kholin.
The preparatory session for Ukrainian Olympiad contenders will commence on the 17th of June while a month later the students will depart for Washington D.C.
The supplied equipment set consists of lab glassware indispensible for chemical synthesis and analysis, magnetic mixers, centrifuge, spectrometer and other apparatus ensuring the adequate level of chemical experiments’ accuracy.
The equipment set donated by OSTCHEM has replaced the morally obsolete pieces being no more fit for use at international competitions. “For example, some outdated instruments manufactured back at the USSR times were up to 4 times heavier than foreign-made analogues. Essentially, the Ukrainian team would prepare using one set of equipment, while participating in contests using totally different one. At the end of the day, it had its repercussions on our performance,” explained Dr. Kholin who has for many years now been the senior supervisor of the national chemistry Olympic team.
The upgrade of the technical and material inputs essential for the team training at the premises of Kharkiv National V.N. Karazin University is part of the implementation of the ‘Support to School Chemical Education’ project initiated in 2011 by Mr. Dmitry Firtash, Head of the Board of Directors of Group DF.
“We are aspiring to creating the educational and research environment promoting the cultivation of a new generation of chemists – this is the only right strategy,” commented Mr. Alexander Khalin, OSTCHEM’s General Director. In 2011-2012, the company donated chemical equipment and reagents to 26 Ukrainian schools having trained national Chemistry Olympiads winners.
Besides, pursuing its charity program, OSTCHEM provided funding to carrying out the Ukrainian Chemistry Olympiad’s final round for 10- and 11-graders taking place in Nikolayev. The teachers having trained the Olympiad winners were awarded with grants from Group DF while the winning students received notebook computers as a prize.
“By supporting the school chemical education program, we want to raise students’ interest in this discipline. On top that, this effort is also aimed at addressing one of the industry’s major problems: shortage of qualified personnel,” said Alexander Khalin.
NOTE
The International Chemistry Olympiad (http://www.icho2012.org/) is an academic competition for high-school student regularly run since 1968. Each year over 300 students from more than 70 countries take part in the Olympiad. A national team consists of four members. Last year, the Ukrainian team participating in the 43rd International Olympiad in Turkey won the maximum number of medals: 4 out of 4. All in all, a record of the Ukrainian team having participated in 18 international Olympiads since 1994 includes 10 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze medals.