A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry - KFU

As every other institution with a long and rich history, A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry has its own traditions. One of them is an annual Student Initiation Ceremony, which unites students of all courses from 1st to 5th and ties them together – one can even think of it as a big "get-to-know-each-other" party!

This ceremony takes place on the first weekend after the first week of studying at the Institute, usually on Sundays. Freshmen are invited to come to the square in front of the Institute early in the morning, where they are warmly greeted by the upper-year students. Everybody is hanging out, chatting and playing funny games – all of that is to make new friends and good connections, and also to wait long enough for every interested student to come over.

After everyone arrives, the laughing crowd quickly makes its way to the bus station and takes an approx. twenty-minutes ride to a beautiful forest not so far from the city of Kazan.

There they have a group picture taken, and after that everybody is divided into mixed groups of a smaller size. Each group then plays various team-building games which are aimed at letting everyone get to know each other on the course, make new friends and also express themselves. The games always make freshmen understand how important it is to support each other – both physically and mentally, and how immensely this understanding will help them later in their future.

After playing the games on the open air and getting to know each other much better than even several hours ago, students have a picnic, organised by the Institution and the upper-year students.

After that comes the initiation itself – a sacred moment, when everyone is kindly asked to close their eyes and are given a piece of a lemon in one hand and a glass of carbonised water in another. Not knowing what they are holding, freshmen are then asked to eat whatever they have in their hands.

The idea is that a simple reaction, emitting a small amount of CO2, will take place in their mouths – which is basically exactly like drinking a soda. What's important is that freshmen will feel the reaction, marking themselves as future chemists.

The last activity of the day is called "A Fall of Trust". It is best described by its name: one student climbs up a big stump, using a help of an instructor, and then falls back – right into the hands of his fellow students, who all group together at the bottom to catch the person falling. Everybody gets the chance to fall off the stump and also to catch the person falling.

This usually concludes the day, and as the evening falls, the students group together and return back to Kazan. The next few days are always seasoned with many conversations among students, delightedly discussing this year's Initiation Party and sharing the amusing stories of their experience!

Not only is this day a celebration day for every student in Russia, but it is also a very important day for the Butlerov Institute of Chemistry. Reason – today we welcome new students to join our big and friendly family!

This process usually starts with freshmen students gathering in our Assembly Hall, where they are greeted by the Heads of all the Departments of out Institute. After each of them encourages yesterday's pupils to have a bright and hopeful look towards the future, they all proudly receive their Student ID cards from the hands of our Institutes Headmaster.

After that, everybody stands up and enounces a "Chemists Oath" in unison. The Oath praises the great Science of Chemistry and motivates the students to reach out and discover the unknown.

This marks their process of becoming the freshmen Chemistry students complete.

As the famous saying goes, the first day of a new year defines the year to come. As the first day in the A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry was fun, engaging and motivating for each and every new student, we can be sure that they will keep this feeling throughout their years of study. Congratulations!

Hey guys, today's September 1st, celebrated as the Knowledge Day in Russia! Many congratulations to our current and prospective students! May we all be inspired to pursue new goals, work more to achieve more, broaden our horizons and make new good friends both in the Butlerov Institute of Chemistry and in the Kazan Federal University as well. Cheers!

P.S.: Much more posts to come, stay tuned!

Hey there, friends, how's it going?

You know, for the last few days we have been telling you more about our Institute, the departments it is divided into, and what different types of chemical education you can obtain here. And we are not planning to stop! However, today Kazan Federal University hosted a very interesting and important event – a vacancy fair, where different companies send their representatives so that they recruit new staff for their growing businesses (or, sometimes, government organisations).

We thought it would be interesting for you to get to know what employment positions are available for our students after graduation, and show that no matter which Department of our Institute you opt to choose, there still will be plenty of challenging but rewarding work opportunities for you to decide from!

It is worth mentioning that the vacancy itself was not limited only to positions in the sphere of natural sciences. Over fifty companies, their fields of interest ranging from IT to industrial translations, has decided to take part in this annual event. Despite that, not only didn't the positions in the fields of chemical sciences get overwhelmed, but they were actually highly notable, as both students and companies representatives expressed mutual interest in each other.

There was, for instance, a company that specialises in the field of gas and oil investigation as well as fuel transport, chemical and metallurgic engineering. They offered a graduate-special full-time position of an assistant chemist, which did not require any previous professional experience in the industry. The company representative claimed that they are very interested in Butlerov IOC's graduates, not only with a Masters/Specialist diploma, but the Bachelor's as well. This position, as the manager explained, was only a starter – their company later puts much work into each of their new employees, training them to become pundit in their particular sphere of interest, so that later a student who just graduated from the university becomes a highly trained chemical engineer or a qualified R&D team member.

We heard quite a similar story from the representatives of several more chemical companies, one of which was concerned with the pharmaceutical business, and others were the government organisations. They all were looking for a chemical sciences graduate with little or no previous experience, expecting them to work full time and make progress to become important members of their R&D teams or even go as far to occupy a higher management position.

All in all, this event has shown that companies from all over Russia are interested in the graduates of A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry and have some good offers to share! All that's left for us students is to take part in these regular events and choose a career we ourselves are most interested to pursue.

Next up is the Department of Analytical Chemistry. Its history also dates back to the times of K. Claus, although it has been declared as an individual department only in 1919. Since being under the guidance of A. Vasilyev, pundit in the sphere of electrochemical analysis, and up to this day the department has been working on solving various actual problems of modern chemistry. First it was concerned mainly with the inorganic analysis due to the requests from the industry, while later its focus shifted to more fundamental concepts like the study of organic metal complexes utilising optical and electrochemical methods of analysis.

The students of this Department obtain a BSc or a Specialist degree in Analytical Chemistry. The department also provides an even more in-depth MSc program of «Methods of Analytical Chemistry». Every student gets an amazing opportunity to work on the most modern instruments and conduct their own research under the guidance of the Department’s professors. The graduates are proficient at modern instrumental research methods and are employed in analytical laboratories of the largest industrial manufactories, or at federal and regional environmental status screening laboratories, or even at the forensics laboratories.

Fields of main scientific interest of the Department of Analytical Chemistry include investigation of various methods for determining organic compounds in the interest of medicine, ecology and nutrition products analysis via creating new sensors that possess a high sensitivity and selectivity towards organic compounds of biological importance. The Department develops new chemically modified electrodes based on nano sized metal particles, enzyme biosensors to detect pesticides and biogenic phenols, electrochemical methods for individual and group detection of antioxidants, and various DNA sensors to detect specific interactions involving this important molecule. Moreover, the Department conducts synthesis of new phosphororganic compounds, seeing them as new selective sorbents and complexing agents.

To sum it all up, you can see that the Department of Analytical Chemistry of A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry of KFU has a long and prolific history and it is an amazing place not only to study the in-depth concepts of analytical chemistry, but also to conduct your own progressive research on the most modern and efficient instruments, obtaining a marketable degree from a renowned institution.

Still aiming at letting you get more familiar with A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry, we now invite you to take a short walk around the Institute and get acquainted with the aforementioned Departments.

First to speak of is the Department of Inorganic Chemistry. It has been declared as an individual entity in 1878, however, the research in this scientific field had been being conducted since the year 1805, shortly after the foundation of the Institute itself. Mind you, it is at this particular Department that the element Ruthenium was discovered by Kazan Federal University alumni K. Claus in 1844. The latter was also a teacher to N. Zinin and A. Butlerov. The history of this department can also boast many names of renowned scientists that have been successfully working within its walls.

The students of this Department obtain a BSc or a Specialist degree in Inorganic and Coordination Chemistry. The department also provides a MSc program of «Chemistry of Composite Materials». Every student gets an amazing opportunity to work on the most modern instruments. The graduates are proficient at modern physicochemical research methods and use their knowledge to solve different actual scientific problems in various spheres, from environmental to medicinal studies, or even in the development of new materials.

Fields of scientific interest of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry include:
- complexation of 3d-, 4f- transitional and platinum metals with biologically active ligands

- development of new contrast agents for MRI
synthesis and study of hyperbranched macromolecules, especially their biological properties

- studying kinetics and mechanisms of replacement reactions in coordination compounds solutions

- synthesis and application of nanomaterials in biology and medicine

All in all, one can be certain to say that the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry of KFU is an excellent place to study fundamental inorganic chemistry concepts and conduct cutting edge research in this sphere.

So, in the last post we promised to tell you more about the scientific part of our students’ education, so let’s dive in!

Butlerov Institute of Chemistry is divided into seven Departments. These include the Departments of Inorganic, Analytical, Organic, Physical and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as the Department of High Molecular and Organoelement compounds and the Department of Chemical Education.

Our Institute can also boast with more than 50 world-level research laboratories that it accommodates. Among them are the laboratories of Functional Polymers and Polymer Materials, of Catalysis, of Biosensors and Bioelectrochemistry, of Synthesis and Structure of Organoelement Compounds and of Fast Calorimetry, just to name a few.

Departments of our Institute have their own long and prosperous history, full of significant achievements and recognised success stories. In the next several posts we will tell you more about each of them, so stay tuned!

Welcome to the official page of Alexander Butlerov Institute of Chemistry, one of the leading educational facilities of Kazan Federal University! It’s so nice to see you visiting our page.

As every good friendship starts with a mutual introduction, we would like to tell you more about our Institute so you could get a grasp on its excellent history and broad perspectives.

The story of our Institute began at 1804, right with the formation of our University itself. At first, the primary educational topics were metallurgy and chemical technology. However, in 1830s the main spheres of interest swiftly transitioned to more fundamental aspects of chemistry, mostly due to the works of world’s renowned chemists N.N. Zinin, K.K. Klaus and their brilliant student A.M. Butlerov – we are sure you’ve met these names on the pages of any chemistry textbook you’ve read. These famous Kazan Federal University’s alumni laid the basis of what was later known by the proud name of Kazan Chemical School, which shook the world of chemistry with the groundbreaking discoveries of its members, some of whom include V. Markovnikov, A. Zaitsev, F. Flavitsky, E. Wagner, A. Arbuzov, B. Arbuzov, A. Pudovik, A. Konovalov, just to name a few. These celebrated scientists carried the traditions of their teachers throughout the long history of our Institute, which is often reflected in the fact that our Institute is deservedly credited as the birthplace of organic and organophosphorus chemistry in Russia, as well as it is the place of discovery of the element Ruthenium.

It can also be seen that from its early years our Institute has been on the cutting edge of contemporary natural sciences, a feature it still preserves today. Modern Institute of Chemistry includes 7 departments and more than 50 world-level research laboratories. Among the first ones are the departments of Inorganic, Analytical, Organic, Polymer and Organoelement, Physical and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as the department of Chemical Education. The departments accommodate more than 600 students from all over the world that are being taught by 100 full professors and PhD. More details on the educational and research processes will follow in the next posts, stay tuned!

So, as you can see, Alexander Butlerov Institute of Chemistry indeed has a wonderful history and broad perspectives as it prepares graduates of seven different chemical research fields and follows into footsteps of the acclaimed scientists of the past.

So much for our introduction! We would like to thank you for your attention and kindly ask you to introduce yourself in the comments section below. Why not make good friends with A. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry and later become one of the best alumni of Kazan Federal University?