History

The research in biology at Lviv University began at the end of 18th century, when the main subjects of research were the flora of Prykarpattia and adjacent territories, which became much more active in 19th century. Since that time the herbarium of the Faculty of Biology has had the collections of plants by Ostap Voloshchak, Oleksandr Zavadsky, Yosyp Lahovsky, Anthony Reman, and others since that time.

In 1852, the Department of Zoology separated from the Department of Botany. It has been headed by Benedict Dybowski since 1884, who founded a zoological museum. In 1852, Professor Hyacinth Lobazhevsky founded the Botanical Garden of Lviv University. At the end of XIX century the research in human and animal physiology, embryology, comparative anatomy, and anthropology began. In 1920-1940 famous biochemist Jakub Parnas worked at the university.

The Faculty of Biology was established in 1940 on the basis of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. During the postwar years, the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine M. Popov, professors A. Lazarenko, K. Leutsky, P. Nikiforovsky, P. Yaroshenko, P. Litvinov, associate professors O. Hebgardt, F. Strautman etc have been sent to Lviv from other scientific centers of the country.

In 1940 the departments of plant morphology and taxonomy, plant anatomy and cytology, plant physiology, microbiology, biochemistry, general zoology, zoology and comparative anatomy, animal physiology, animal science, darvo were established. In 1945-1947 – the Department of plant physiology and biochemistry, in 1974 – the Department of Biophysics and Mathematical Methods in Biology, in 1976 – the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, and in 2012 – the Department of Ecology were established within the framework of the faculty. It also must be mentioned that professors G. Koziy, V. Zdun, I. Shostakovska, B. Sukhomlinov, M. Derkach, G. Shavlovsky, S. Hrebinsky and others made a significant contribution to the development of the faculty.