Mykhailo Holubets

Mykhailo Andriiovych Holubets (October 30, 1930, Velykyi Liubin – August 14, 2016, Lviv) was a Ukrainian state and political figure, a member of the first convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Doctor of Biological Sciences, professor, and an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU). He was laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology. Holubets served as the vice-president of the Forestry Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and held the position of honorary director of the NASU Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians. He also was an honorary doctor of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

Biography
Mykhailo Holubets was born on October 30, 1930, in the village of Velykyi Liubin, which is now part of Lviv District in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. In 1953, he obtained a higher education degree from Lviv Agricultural Institute with a specialization in ecology and forestry and the qualification of forestry engineer. He embarked on his scientific career in 1953 as a postgraduate student and later, from 1954 to 1957, as a lecturer at Lviv Agricultural Institute and Ukrainian National Forestry University.

In 1960, Holubets defended his dissertation to obtain the degree of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences. Until 1962, he worked as a junior and senior researcher at the Research Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of the Western Regions of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1962, Mykhailo Holubets worked in scientific institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He initially served as a senior researcher at the Research Institute of Natural Sciences, and later as a senior researcher in the Department of Experimental Ecology and Biocenology at the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences. He also held positions as the head of a department and director of the State Museum of Natural History.

In 1969, he defended his dissertation titled "Spruce Forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians" to earn a Doctor of Biological Sciences degree with a specialization in botany. He defended his dissertation at the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. From 1974, Mykhailo Holubets served as the deputy director for Scientific Work at the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences and led the Lviv branch of this institute. Simultaneously, from 1974 to 1995, he worked as a professor at the Department of Plant Morphology and Systematics at Ivan Franko Lviv State University.

In 1978, Holubets became a professor and was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. From 1991 to 2007, he headed NASU Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians, and from 2008, he held the honorary position of director of the research institution.

In 1990, Mykhailo Holubets became an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He educated specialists in the fields of ecology, botany, and forestry. Holubets was a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Studia Biologica, Ecology and Noosphereology, Scientific Works of the Forestry Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Botanical Journal.

He was the Ukrainian curator of the MAB-6a project within the UNESCO "Man and the Biosphere" program and chaired sections on Fundamental and Applied Problems of Ecology of the Scientific Council on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Ecology, General Biology, and Nature Conservation of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Mykhailo Holubets passed away on August 14, 2016, at the age of 86 and was buried in the family grave at the 59th Field of Yaniv Cemetery in Lviv.

Public and political activities
In 1989–1990 Mykhailo Holubets was a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine.

From 1990 till 1994 he was a member of the Verkhovna Rada, Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection. He participated in the development and signing of documents at the Belovezha Accords, during which the existence of the USSR was terminated.

In 1995–1996 Holubets was a member of the Lviv Oblast Executive Committee.

From 1996 till 2002 he was a member of the Lviv City Executive Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Lviv Regional Organization of the Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia.

He published journalistic works about the People's Movement of Ukraine (1998), the Belovezha meeting of the heads of state of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine (2001), the consequences of russification of the Ukrainian language (2006), "The Tree of Life" (2008) and others.

Scientific works
Professor Holubets' primary research focus included the structural and functional organization of terrestrial ecosystems and geosociosystems, as well as prospects for managing sociospheric processes. He supervised postgraduate students starting from 1965. Under his guidance, 5 doctoral and 17 candidate dissertations were defended.

He paid significant attention to various issues in eidology.

Mykhailo Holubets authored approximately 500 scientific papers, including 19 monographs, and served as the editor for nearly thirty collective monographs.

Selected scientific works by Mykhailo Andriiovych Holubets include:

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 * "Spruce forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians" (Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1978) – 264 pages.
 * "The Film of Life" (Lviv: Polli, 1997) – 185 pages.
 * "From Biosphere to Sociosphere" (Lviv: Polli, 1997) – 252 pages.
 * "Current Issues in Ecology" (Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1982) – 158 pages (in Russian).
 * "Ecosystemology" (Lviv: Polli, 2000) – 316 pages.
 * "Ecological Potential of Terrestrial Ecosystems" (Lviv: Polli, 2003) – 180 pages.

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