The prominent Ukrainian ichthyologist and museologist Yuriy Movchan (1936–2021)

Abstract

A brief overview of the life and scientific achievements of Yuriy Movchan, an outstanding Ukrainian zoologist, museologist, collector of zoological collections, fish expert, and author of the ichthyological exhibition of the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine is presented. Biographic data are given based on the scientist’s personal file, which is preserved in the archive of the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine, as well as according to his autobiography published in the jubilee volume of the Proceedings of the Zoological Museum (Vol. 50, 2019). In the context of Yuriy Movchan’s scientific achievements, a list of his main publications is given, including handbooks, scientific monographs, catalogues, and guides to the zoological museum. Yuriy Movchan’s creative life was practically entirely related to the zoological museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Working in the zoological museum, Yuriy Vasyliovych has grown from museum attendant to a prominent ichthyologist, specialist of fish fauna of all kinds of water bodies of Ukraine, including inland and marine waters, aborigine and adventive fauna components, rare and industrial fishes, etc. The fish collection of NMNH includes more than 47 740 specimens of 567 fishes collected by Yu. Movchan personally and with fellow scientists. Yu. Movchan paid a great deal of attention to the conservation of rare and threatened species of Ukraine’s fish fauna. Voluntarily he worked as academic secretary of the zoological section at the National Commission on the Red Data Book of Ukraine, coordinated and edited the chapter ‘Cyclostomes and Fishes,’ authored 11 species reviews in the second (1994) and 24 in the third (2009) edition of the Red Data Book of Ukraine. His most cited works are presented. Yuriy Movchan worked until his last days, even when he was chained to his wheelchair, completing the editing of the second edition of his fundamental work ‘Fishes of Ukraine’ and seeking an opportunity to publish it. His late publications are devoted to the history of creation of the zoological exhibition and scientific collection of cyclostomes and fishes of NMNH.

Keywords

• museum collections
• ichthyofauna
• history of zoology