The chair of Radiochemistry was founded in February, 1962 at the base of Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of The Siberian Branch of The Russian Academy of Sciences. The founder of the chair and its first head was member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.V. Nikolaev – a scientist with a broad outlook, one of the founders of the chemical specialization at NSU. The first teachers at the chair were Y.A. Afanasyev, Y.A. Dyadin, A.I. Ryabinin, V.I. Belyi, P.A. Valov. A great contribution to the development of radio chemical laboratory course was made by K.I. Myakishev, O.N. Marchuk, A.I. Yurtov, A.D. Starostin.

Today, qualified specialists are working at the chair, including those well-known in the international scientific community. They represent such fundamental topics of inorganic chemistry as in-depth courses on “Heterogeneous equilibrium” (by Doctor of Chemistry, Professor K.A. Khaldoyanidi), “Complex solutions equilibrium” (by Doctor of Chemistry, Professor V.I. Belevantsev), “The structure of inorganic substances” (by Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor L.N. Mazalov), "Reactivity of complex compounds" (by Doctor of Chemistry, Professor B.I. Peshevitskiy), “Fundamentals of crystal Chemistry ” (by Doctor of Chemistry, Associate Professor S.F. Solodovnikov).

A number of special courses, such as "Selected Chapters of Inorganic Chemistry" (by Doctor of Chemistry, Professor V.P. Fedin), “Cluster compounds” (by Doctor of Chemistry, Professor V.E. Fyodorov), “Functional materials” (by member of The Russian Academy of Sciences F.A. Kuznetsov), introduce students with the latest developments in the field of inorganic chemistry. Students get acknowledged with one of the sections of the new, rapidly developing supramolecular chemistry at the special course “Inclusion Compounds” (by Candidate of Chemistry, senior teacher A.Y. Manakov) designed and formerly taught by Professor Y.A. Dyadin.

The chair trains specialists in the following fields:

• inorganic synthesis;
• modern methods of characterization of inorganic substances;
• the study of complex formation in solutions;
• chemistry of inorganic materials;
• study of isolation, separation and purification of inorganic substances;
• instrumental analysis of inorganic materials and high-purity substances;
• supramolecular chemistry;
• cluster compound chemistry.

Graduates of the chair have an opportunity to master atomic emission, mass-spectral, atomic absorption as well as electrochemical methods of research and materials analysis that allow developing high accuracy methods for microimpurities evaluation in high-purity and other materials. The study of compounds structure is performed by methods of X-ray analysis, X-ray, photoelectron, Mossbauer, IR and Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc. involving quantum-mechanical calculations. The chair prepares experts in the field of efficient methods for separation, purification and concentration of substances such as extraction, ion exchange, clathration.