I am very saddened to share the devastating news that a former postdoc from my lab, Volodymyr I. Kozlovskyy (1968-2023), was killed in a battleground in Ukraine defending his country. Volodya was my first postdoc who helped me to set up my lab and get experiments rolling. While being in my lab for only one year (2005-2006), he co-authored two manuscripts, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2009 and 2010. He returned to Ukraine after one year and continued his academic career at the Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. We also collaborated on the three-year project funded in 2017 by the CRDF-GLOBAL U.S.-Ukraine Competition. This collaboration resulted in a publication in Biology in 2021. From the first days of russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion, he joined the army to defend his Motherland and the West from russia’s invasion. He was killed on June 19th, 2023, in a battle in the East part of Ukraine while trying to save his wounded friends. He will be dearly missed by his wife, Natalia Romaniuk (a former postdoc in the Philip Rea lab, University of Pennsylvania, PA) and their two sons, 17 years old Yaroslav and 15 years old Andriy, extended family, and friends. A couple of weeks ago, my husband Marko, sent him a card, signed by Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Roald Hoffman (Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor, Emeritus, Chemistry and Chemica Biology, Cornell), with good wishes and willingness to meet with him in person when the war is over… Volodya was deeply touched and instantly blushed…Rest in peace, Volodya; you will be dearly missed.
