Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Інститут геофізики ім. С.І. Субботіна НАН України; Instytut heofizyky im. S.I. Subbotina NAN Ukraїny). A scientific research institute established in Kyiv in 1960 as an outgrowth of the work of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. It incorporated several existing institutions: the geophysical laboratory and magnetic station of the Institute of Geological Sciences; geophysical departments and stations of the Institute of Geology of Useful Minerals of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Seismic Sector of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR with its Lviv branch. The function of the new institute was to conduct research in fundamental, experimental, and applied geophysics. In 1966, the Institute of Earth Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR transferred to the Institute of Geophysics several seismic stations located in the Crimea: in Alushta, Simferopol, Feodosia, and Yalta. In Simferopol, the Department of Seismology of the Crimean Zone with four seismic stations was created as a regional branch of the Institute of Geophysics. In 1975, the institute added another large division: sector of explosion geodynamics. Following the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster many of the institute’s employees participated in monitoring radioactive contamination of people, land, transport, and food products. Their work also included the seismo-acoustic monitoring of the Chornobyl plant’s facilities.

Following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, the institute raised its international profile through global scientific initiatives, including EUROPROBE, GEORIFT, PANCAPDI, EUROBRIDGE, DOBRE, INTAS, IRIS, and SCAR (Antarctic research). In 1995, the Kyiv Seismic Station, established through Ukraine-USA cooperation, joined the Global Seismological Network (GSN). Ukraine also joined the IRIS consortium [Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology], gaining access to the world seismic data bank. The United States Geological Service and the Institute of Geophysics have collaborated on research into Earth’s physics, the installation and maintenance of seismological equipment, and the exchange of seismic data and related findings. The institute has participated in the Antarctica research since 1995, following Great Britain’s transfer of the Faraday scientific station to Ukraine (renamed the Academician Volodymyr Vernadsky station). In 1997, the institute joined the Interdepartmental Research Self-financing Center for Geodynamic Research alongside units of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy, and the Main Department of Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Until 2025 the Center coordinated seismological, hydrogeological, geodetic, and engineering geological works across Ukraine. The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine established the Serafim Subbotin Prize in 1998 to honor the institute’s founding director. It recognizes outstanding scientific achievements in geophysics, hydrophysics, scientific instrumentation, metrology, and atmospheric physics.

The institute has 10 departments (earth’s deep-seated processes and gravimetry; regional problems of geophysics; geothermy and recent geodynamics; tectonosphere; tectonophysics; geomagnetism; petromagnetism and marine geophysics; oil and gas geophysics; seismic hazards; and Carpathian Mountains region seismisity); as well as the Center for the Collective Use of Magnetometric Equipment (with a laboratory of rock magnetism and paleomagnetism based on the magnetic station in the village of Demydiv, just north of Kyiv); the Division Explosion Geodynamics; a technological design office; and ten seismic stations. There are also two regional branches: the Carpathian Section in Lviv (since 1991, in 1961–72 operated as the institute’s Lviv branch) and the Poltava Gravimetric Observatory (since 1964). In the USSR the institute led the way in the interpretation of geological-geophysical data and in the development of a gravitational model of the earth’s crust, and it remains a leading scientific institution in geophysics in Eastern Europe. Its staff (336, including 130 scientists in 2022) study the structure, composition, formation, tectonic movements, and changes in the earth’s crust and mantle, using seismic, gravimetric, magnetometric, radiation, and satellite survey methods; detailed mapping of the earth’s gravitational, thermal, electric, and magnetic fields; radioactive dating and paleomagnetism; and theoretical geophysics (including mathematical modeling). The development and improvement of research methodology, technology, and instrumentation and the computerization of data collection and processing are important components of the institute’s work. The institute publishes numerous monographs and the bimonthly Heofizichnyi zhurnal (since 1979, before Geofizicheskii sbornik). Its directors have been Serafim Subbotin (1960–76), Anatolii Chekunov (1976–91), Vitalii Starostenko (1991–2021), and Oleksandr Kendzera (2021–).

The institute’s official website is http://www.igph.kiev.ua/

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was updated in 2026.]