Alexander Mikhailovich Lyutsko was born on January 23, 1941 in the village of Chizhevichi, Soligorsky district, Minsk region. After graduating from the Physics Department of the Belarusian State University in 1963, he worked at the Research Institute of Oncology and Medical Radiology. He began his teaching career in 1970 at the Department of Nuclear Physics of BSU. From 1978 to 1987, he headed the Laboratory of Instrumental and Radioisotope Methods of Research at the Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, and traveled around half of the world on research vessels.
After returning to his homeland, A. M. Lyutsko, deeply aware of the negative consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, actively engaged in the work to eliminate them and to inform the population about the current situation in the Republic. In 1990, for the general reader he published the book “Background of Chernobyl”, which tells about radioactivity and its effects on the human body in a popular form. This theme was continued in the book “Chernobyl: a chance to survive”, published in 1996 in co-authorship. A. N. Lyutsko was one of the first to raise the question of the need to train radioecological specialists in the republic. This idea was reflected in the decisions of the 1st Congress in memory of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov in 1991 and was supported by the United Nations.
On January 20, 1992, by the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, the Sakharov International Higher College of Radioecology was opened at the V. I. Lenin Belarusian State University, with A. M. Lyutsko as its rector.
On April 20, 1992, a branch of the college was established in the area of radioactive contamination, in the village of Babchin, Khoynik district, Gomel region, to provide students with opportunities to undergo field practices and conduct scientific research by scientists of the Institute. In 1992, the International Sakharov Higher College on Radioecology established an International Board of Trustees, which included scientists and public figures of world renown. In June 1993, the college established a research sector. In October 1994, the college was transformed into the International Institute of Radioecology.
In order to improve the efficiency of the educational process at the Institute, in March 1995, the Department of Radioecology was established on the basis of the departments “Nuclear Physics and Radiochemistry” and “Radioecology and Agrobiology”. In October of the same year, the departments were further merged into departments: the Department of Radiobiology and Medical Ecology was created on the basis of the departments of “Medical Ecology” and “Pathology and Immunology”, and the Department of Humanitarian Education was created on the basis of the departments of “English” and “French and German”. In the same year, the Council of the Institute, the highest governing body of the International Institute of Radioecology, began its work.
Outstanding organizational skills, purposefulness of the rector of the Institute, deep vision of the problems of radioecology allowed the Institute to gain international recognition in a short time and attract qualified pedagogical and scientific personnel to the educational process.
Lyutsko, Alexander Mikhailovich – author of 69 scientific papers, including 2 monographs, 4 textbooks for secondary schools on radiation safety. On his initiative and under his leadership, the concept of radioecological education in the Republic of Belarus was developed.
A. N. Lyutsko’s active teaching and research activities were highly appreciated both in the republic and abroad. He was elected an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences, was a member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection, was a member of a number of reputable international organizations, and was the first in Belarus to be rewarded the academic title of professor in the speciality “Ecology”.
Alexander Mikhailovich was an excellent teacher who constantly experimented, based on traditional approaches to the educational process, and applied new non-traditional teaching methods. His sincerity, spontaneity, and lack of a mentoring tone towards colleagues and students aroused love and respect. He fully devoted himself to the education of students, aimed them at a creative and decent future, it was his efforts at the institute, in 1992, that created the Guild of Students, a unique and single structure of student self-government in the university of the republic. His inquisitive mind, broad erudition, curiosity, desire to travel and explore the world are reflected in published and unpublished travel notes, in which he showed himself as a psychologist, romantic and optimist.
On September 4, 1997, Alexander Mikhailovich’s life ended prematurely.
“Memories of colleagues of Alexander Mikhailovich Lyutsko”:
Gurachevsky Valery Leonidovich – link to the video
Timoshchenko Andrey Igorevich – link to the video
Kovaleva Tatyana Grigoryevna – link to the video
Meeting of the Council of the ISEI BSU
