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Oksana Ivanivna Bodak (1942-2005)

Oksana Ivanivna Bodak, an outstanding figure in the field of intermetallic compounds, passed away at the age of 63 on October 25, 2005, after a terrible illness. She was the Director of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Ivan Franko National U. of Lviv (Ukraine).

Oksana Bodak obtained her PhD in Chemistry at Lviv University under the guidance of E. Gladyshevskii. During her 40-year career at Lviv U., she progressively became a docent, a professor (1984) and the head of the Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry (1989). Motivated by her devotion to teaching and the research on intermetallic compounds, she led the department through periods of difficult economic conditions and managed to build up a worldwide network of scientific collaborations. Under her direction, the Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry prepared 280 masters in chemistry, every sixth master pursuing further studies to obtain a PhD title.

At an early stage in her career, Oksana Bodak joined Lviv School on Crystal Chemistry of Intermetallic Compounds. Her works on binary and ternary compounds containing rare-earth metals have greatly contributed to our knowledge of intermetallic compounds, and earned her respect in the scientific community, in several cases rewarded by prizes and medals. During her long and prolific scientific career, she studied more than 180 chemical systems, determining the conditions of formation and the crystal structures of more than 1800 compounds, and discovered 130 new structure types. The results of her works have been published in some 800 scientific papers and she co-authored two monographs. She characterized a number of important crystal chemical anomalies, and collaborated on the development of generalization concerning the relationships between intermetallic structure types.

Oksana Bodak enjoyed sharing her deep scientific knowledge and experience with students and young scientists and was an inspiring teacher. Trustworthiness, intelligence and kindness were evident in all the actions of her everyday life and she will be greatly missed by those who had the good fortune to know her.

R. Gladyshevskii, B. Belan
2 September 2008