Boiarschi Iulia

About

Iulia Boiarschi, born on March 29, 1928, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, graduated with honors from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Chisinau State University in 1951, becoming the first woman Doctor Habilitate of physical and mathematical sciences in the Moldavian SSR in 1974. A renowned specialist in the physics of strength and plasticity of materials, she was a disciple of Professor Iurie Perlin and founded the Moldovan scientific school in this field, being elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Her career includes positions of associate professor (docent) at the Department of Theoretical Physics of Chisinau State University (1955–1984), university professor (1989), and head of the Laboratory of Mechanical Properties of Materials at the Institute of Applied Physics of the ASM (1984–1996), where she published over 250 studies and articles in local and international journals, contributing to the modeling of plastic flow of materials during penetration. Under her leadership, the laboratory developed innovative methods such as microindentation and sclerometry for studying the mechanical properties of ionic and covalent crystals, semiconductors, metals, polymers, and composites, highlighting phenomena such as the polarity of plastic deformation, elastic recovery, and dislocation mobility under conditions of variable temperature or irradiation. She authored fundamental monographs, including "Deformation of Crystals in Microhardness Testing" (1972), and laid the foundation for theoretical models explaining deformation mechanisms under concentrated loads, influencing subsequent research on hardness anisotropy and the scale effect. Today, her laboratory is named the "Iulia Boiarskaia" Laboratory and continues its activity with advanced equipment such as the Nanotester PMT-3NI-02 nanoindentor and the Park XE7 atomic force microscope, under the leadership of Olivia Șikimaka. The personal life of Iulia Boiarschi was closely linked to science and her husband, academician Svetoslav Moscalenco, a renowned physicist in the field of exciton physics and nonlinear optics, both dedicating themselves to the development of Moldovan science. The couple raised two children, Elena Kiseliova and Eugen Moscalenco, both doctors of physical and mathematical sciences, and their grandson Anton is also a physicist, continuing the family's legacy in research. She passed away on January 15, 1996, leaving a lasting legacy through her scientific school and the laboratory that bears her name, a symbol of women's contribution to the exact sciences in the Republic of Moldova.