“Scientists and War” Symposium: Reflections on the Scientific Collaboration of Ukrainian and Romanian Historians of Science

Abstract

The article highlights that international scientific collaboration is vital for expanding knowledge, fostering innovation, and pooling countries' intellectual resources to tackle global challenges. In this context, cooperation between Ukrainian and Romanian historians of science and technology is significant; it started in 2003 at the XXX Congress of the International Committee on the History of Science and Technology (ICOHTEC), where Ukrainian and Romanian colleagues became members. In 2018, A. Lytvynko took part in the ICOHTEC Congress in Brasov (Romania) as an invited speaker. In 2019, historians of science and technology from the Dobrov Institute for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Transylvania University (Brașov, Romania) signed an active cooperation agreement. As part of this partnership, in 2022 and 2023, Ukrainian scientists participated in seminars at Transylvania University and the Romanian Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the Romanian Academy (CRIFST). From 2019 to 2025, Romanian colleagues have served on the Organizing Committee and as speakers at the plenary sessions of the annual International Conferences of Young Historians of Science, Technology, and Education and Specialists. Details about these events were published in the international scientific journal "Science and Science." A successful collaboration was the organization of the Ukrainian-Romanian Symposium "Scientists and War" (symposium leader – Alla Lytvynko), held as part of the 27th International Congress on the History of Science and Technology "People, Places, Exchanges, Circulation" (Dunedin, New Zealand, June 29 – July 5, 2025). The symposium, which lasted four days and included 19 participants delivering 12 papers, focused on the realities, outcomes, and social aspects of scientific work by scientists and research institutes across various fields during wartime crises and post-war recovery, using the examples of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war that started on February 24, 2022.