Lviv Polytechnic National University Geodesy Department is the oldest one in Ukraine. The Geodesy and Spherical Astronomy Department was founded according to the decree of Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Education in 1871. The first head of the Department was Zbrozhek Dominique, the assistant of Czech Technical School in Prague, who was later conferred the title of professor.
The foundation of the Geodesy and Spherical astronomy Department in Lviv Technical Academy led to establishing the first astronomical observatory in Western Ukraine in 1877 and the meteorological station since 1878.
Since the scientific and pedagogical potential of the Department increased, it was divided into the Geodesy (as it is known nowadays) and Spherical astronomy and Higher geodesy Departments, headed by professors S. Vidt and V. Laska respectively.
Since 1912, the Geodesy Department was headed by Professor K. Vaygel — one of the most famous geodesic scientists in Western Ukraine at that tim, who headed the Geodesy Department for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, he and the large group of Lviv scientists were executed by the Nazis on Vuletski hills on July 3rd, 1941.
After the German-Soviet war, in 1945, the Geodesy Faculty, established in Lviv Polytechnic, included the Geodesy Department. The senior lecturer A. Motornyi was appointed to the post of the Department head.
Since 1952, when the Department faculty was supplemented by the young lecturers, who graduated from Geodesy Faculty the Department began studying the impact of the environment on the results of geodetic measurements, as A. Motornyi proposed. There were D. Maslych, A. Ostrovskyy, L. Khyzhak, M. Drok, I. Kmetko, S. Plahotnyy, M. Kravtsov, R. Tartachynskyi and others who have worked on this.
In 1966 the former USSR Ministry of Geology and the Ukrainian SSR Ministry of Education jointly decided to establish the first branch laboratory at the Geodesy faculty for studying the atmospheric impacts on astronomical and geodesic measurements. The first supervisor of the laboratory was professor M. Myhal and the first lecturers were senior lecturers D. Maslych, A. Ostrovskyi and L. Hyzhak. The most important scientific development of the laboratory
Recently the Department has made a considerable progress in the development of methods and means of providing geodetic installation and large technological equipment repair. It turned out that geodesic methods give you an opportunity not only to put manufacturing equipment in design position, but also to predict its duration and efficiency. And it is a new and perspective direction in engineering geodesy. Such development brought the Geodesy Department 29 copyright certificates, senior lecturer T. Shevchenko defended doctoral thesis and engineers V. Hrebenyuk, V. Polischuk, S. Hropot — Ph.D. ones.
The important direction of its scientific activity is the consideration of atmospheric effects on the accuracy of astronomical and geodesic measurements. Lviv Refraction School, founded by Professor A. Ostrovskyi is recognized not only in Ukraine, but all over the world.
The senior lecturer V. Litynskyi was the first who published Geodesy encyclopaedic dictionary which consists of 3,800 articles on topography, geodesy, geodesic astronomy, space geodesy, planet geodesy, spherical geodesy, engineering geodesy, sea geodesy etc.
The senior lecturers I. Harasymchuk, Z. Tartachynska, N. Yarema, I. Pokotylo, I. Sidorov, Yu. Korduba and assistants V. Tarnavskyi, O. Serant, O. Prystupa worthily continued the best traditions of their predecessors in the scientific and educational work.
Since the foundation of Department 53 doctoral and Ph.D theses were prepared and defended, 24 monographs, textbooks and over 700 research papers were published. More than 20 years the Department is fundamental for geodesic departments of Western Ukraine.
More datailed information You can find on our Electronic Encyclopedia Department page.