INRTU Staff Honored on University’s 95th Anniversary

A ceremony to award university staff in honor of INRTU’s 95th anniversary was held in the university's assembly hall on November 5. Staff members received awards fr om the Rector, the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and regional ministries.

Colleagues were congratulated by Rector Mikhail Korniakov. He emphasized that the great construction projects of the country are linked to Irkutsk National Research Technical University, all of which is the merit of its staff. The university is currently a participant in the federal Priority 2030 program, holds good positions in the Times Higher Education rankings, and takes pride in establishing the Baikal School of BRICS and the Siberian School of Geosciences.

“Today we thank you for your daily work aimed at making our university even stronger and more renowned. It is no accident that the Russian Government approved the list of 38 universities ensuring technological leadership, which includes INRTU. I wish you happiness, health, development, new projects, and, most importantly, talented students,”

said the Rector.

To mark the anniversary, Mikhail Korniakov and representatives of the university's leadership performed a song about Irkutsk Polytechnic University.

Olga Kachor was awarded a letter of gratitude from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. In 2022, she was at the founding of the Department of Geoecology within the Siberian School of Geosciences, which she now heads. Among her team’s achievements, Olga Kachor highlights commercial projects at the intersection of subsoil use and ecology. For instance, on behalf of the company “Polyus”, her team carried out challenging work under difficult weather and landscape conditions across an area of over 300 square kilometers in Kolyma. Department staff were also involved in initiative projects that led to the identification of two sites with accumulated environmental damage, assessing their impact on the ecological situation in the Angara and Transbaikal regions.

 “In the near future, a public geospatial portal on the state of atmospheric air in the cities of Irkutsk Region will become fully operational. It brings together the results of our years of research on snow cover,”

shared Olga Kachor.

Xia Shuang, the Assistant to the Rector for Chinese Affairs, was awarded a Rector's Honorary Certificate. Mikhail Korniakov acknowledged her merits, thanking her for her many years of contribution to strengthening friendly relations between Russia and China.

Olga Tolstykh received three awards at once: letters of gratitude from the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Education of the Irkutsk Region, and an INRTU Rector's Honorary Certificate. She began her career at INRTU 18 years ago. Her responsibilities included social work and documentation support for educational, engineering, and scientific activities. For the last five years, Olga Tolstykh has overseen inclusive education at the university and, as a manager, has developed the “Irkutsk Polytechnic” bandy (ball hockey) team.

Among the most notable events of 2025, she cites the university hosting the Student Sports League championship and the finals of sports hockey tournaments wh ere INRTU consistently leads. Furthermore, Olga Tolstykh is pleased with the victory of master's student Andrei Martsenyuk at the II All-RRussian Festival of Inclusive Culture and Creativity. In her view, one of the flagship events next year could be the International tournament “Cup of Two Lakes”. It was previously held on the ice of Lake Baikal and Lake Khövsgöl. To expand its reach, the organizers plan to hold it in the city of Erdenet.

“The university pays a lot of attention to developing an accessible environment. This year, the entrance to the Physical Culture and Health Center was equipped with ramps and handrails. Sanitary rooms are being fitted with small architectural forms for accessibility. As part of the development of inclusive education, the implementation of the interactive infrastructure project ‘Voice of the Campus. Preserving Traditions’ is planned. Its essence lies in placing tactile markers at iconic locations around INRTU. Using a smartphone, these markers will ‘speak’, providing historical and modern facts about the university. Navigational voice markers may also appear on campus,”

explained Olga Tolstykh.

Daria Lobanova was presented with a letter of gratitude from the Rector and an honorary certificate from the Ministry of Youth Policy of the Irkutsk Region. She has been working at INRTU since 2017 and for the last three years has held the position of Vice-Rector for Youth Policy.

Daria Lobanova admits that she is most proud of her team from the INRTU Youth Policy Department:

“These are the people with whom we create events, emotions, and memories for students every day, giving meaning to university life. Together we implement dozens of projects: ‘Siberian Youth Code’ with the support of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, ‘PRO-Entrepreneurship’, the forums ‘Russia is Our Home’ and 'Resonance’, grant programs, and a federal-level accelerator. We have opened a short-stay group for children, student clubs and associations, as well as a ‘Tochka Kipeniya’ (Boiling Point) center that operates non-stop.

The most valuable thing is that everything is done together with the students and for them. I want INRTU to remain a leader, to attract the most ambitious applicants, and to graduate professional, confident, and in-demand specialists who will remember their Alma mater with warmth”.