Ukrainian scientists are mourning the loss of two colleagues, including one known for his media appearances, killed in a Russian drone strike in the early morning hours of 1 January. Cancer biologist Olesia Sokur and neurobiologist Ihor Zyma, a married couple both of the Institute of Biology and Medicine of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU), died in bed when drone debris fell on their apartment in the capital. They were laid to rest today.
Sokur and Zyma were “kind-hearted people,” says KNU biologist Mariia Chernykh, who earned her Ph.D. under Zyma and had known the couple for a decade. Many Ukrainians knew Zyma from his participation in TV documentaries, she notes. “He was a well-known popularizer of science” who “had a great sense of humor,” she says, and a “talent for simplifying complex concepts that endeared him to students and everyday audiences.”
The death of the couple “is a huge loss for the scientific community,” adds Zyma collaborator Ivan Seleznov, a biomedical engineer with Ritsumeikan University who recently launched a company using artificial intelligence to predict fertility.
