Prof. Tatiana Serebrovkaya
Leading Researcher in the Department of Hypoxic States Investigation, head of Bioethics Committee of Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology NAS of Ukraine the Principal Researcher, Doctor of Biology and Academician of the International Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine.
It is with great sorrow, that the High Altitude and Pulmonary Pathology Institute communicates to the world scientific community that this great physiologist from Kyiv, Ukraine, has passed away. This represents a great loss for science, as her extensive experience and dedicated work in Physiology, particularly in ventilation, hypoxia, mitochondria, is her legacy. She was born in Shevchenko Lane, Kyiv, and studied at the Kyiv State University (now Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev)
Among her most distinguished achievements, she proposed the use of Intermittent hypoxia as a therapeutic approach. She developed the first apparatus for intermittent hypoxia based on a re-breathing technique with CO2 consumption. She studied therapeutic possibilities of intermittent hypoxia when applied to patients with prediabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. She has many publications in important journals around the world.
Tatiana was the first recipient of the Science, Honor, and Truth Award in 2002 during the 5th World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology held in Barcelona, Spain.
This is the paper she presented at the 3rd World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology held in Matsumoto, Japan 1998.
Through the years, we met several times in many parts of the world. She also visited us here in La Paz, Bolivia, and we had the most beautiful times together.
We went with my father to Kyiv, Ukraine, and she kindly hosted us in two opportunities, when we shared beautiful moments with Alex, her husband who is a Mathematician. We stayed in their apartment in one opportunity and the next in her mother’s apartment, Maria! She was a very sweet, lovely, and kind lady that we always remember. We visited the Bogomoletz Institute and shared academic moments with Pavel Beloshistky and V. Ya. Berezovsky. They showed us their hypoxicator machines used to treat Asthma and circulatory problems in Kyiv. We were also given as a gift a helmet that they developed, and we used it throughout the years for studies and treatments at our Institute.
When Gustavo Zubieta-Castillo passed away, Dr. Portnychencko A.G., Chief Editor of the Medical Hydrology and Rehabilitation Journal, kindly invited us to write a Scientific Memorial by the kind suggestion of Tatiana. It is found on page 89 here.
Tatiana was a kind and generous person. She loved the mountains and she loved children. Her spirit was always high and filled with enthusiasm.
She was always willing to share whatever she had. We were going to Odense from Kiev on a train and she shared her snack including delicious conserved cherries that she and Alex had cultivated and prepared in her Dasha. But she was also generous in science. She kindly published two of our important papers in the Fiziol J of the Bogomoletz institute: The Life at the Summit of Mt Everest and the Tolerance to Hypoxia. We will forever be grateful for her generosity.
Her daughter Dr. Zoya Serebrovsky, also a physiologist at the Bogomoletz, follows in her footsteps. We keep in contact with her and look forward to the moments when we will meet again at some international conference, where we will share splendid memories of Tatiana.
Farewell Tatiana!!! You will always remain in our hearts and in our minds. You were a great Scientist, a wonderful Wife, a lovely Mother and Grandmother, and a truly marvelous Person!
