The ceremony took place in the historic atrium of the Commandant's Office of the Peter and Paul Fortress and started with a speech from Natalia Chechina, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg.

“For the 23rd time, we celebrate, thank, take pride in, and honor the most talented and ambitious graduates in St. Petersburg. Our city offers vast opportunities for those who want to receive quality education, find a great job, and work for the good of St. Petersburg and its residents. You’ve already taken your first steps in research and participated in socially beneficial projects. I want to thank you for your proactive attitude and also your teachers – who loved, taught, and supported you along the way,” notes Natalia Chechina. 

Olga Osmak joined ITMO Family two years ago as a Master’s student of the Infochemistry program. During her studies, she has published 26 papers focusing on the development of functional materials and digital tools to manage and monitor biological systems.

Recently, Olga Osmak and her colleagues from the Infochemistry Scientific Center have developed a system for monitoring the growth of lactic acid bacteria that evaluates the acidity of an environment in real time. By analyzing an image of a sample, the algorithm determines its color, compares it to the reference gradient, and displays the obtained value in a user-friendly form with an accuracy of 0.01 units. The main competitive advantage of the system is that it allows tracking bacterial growth at the pre-production stage. Furthermore, the algorithm makes it possible to control the input parameters of a bacterial culture before implementing it into the processing line, thus ensuring the stability and reproducibility of the final fermented milk product at small-scale productions. 

Olga successfully combines her research career with mentoring and science popularization pursuits. As part of Sirius.Summer and infochemistry intensive courses, she helped school students master the foundations of scientific methodology, form hypotheses, structure research objectives, and develop full-fledged projects in infochemistry. She also works as a PR manager at the Infochemistry Scientific Center where she organizes events, creates content for the center’s social media platforms, and shares online the achievements of the center’s scientists and its behind-the-scenes. Moreover, Olga excelled at two competitions: ITMO Students Awards 2024 and ITMO Top Graduate 2025.

“A year and a half ago, Ekaterina Skorb, the head of the Infochemistry Scientific Center, saw my potential and said that I would succeed. These exact words brought me to PR. I see my professional path at ITMO as a single ecosystem: I create knowledge as a researcher, share my experience with others as a mentor, and promote it as a PR manager. This wouldn't be possible without our team who helps, supports, and makes the impossible possible every day. This award isn’t just my personal achievement – but a recognition of our joint work and support that I receive at the center and ITMO as a whole. I’ve always been proud to be an ITMO student, and now I’m ready to go further – into my research and towards new challenges,” says Olga Osmak.

In September, Olga will proceed with her research at a microbiological laboratory and continue her education at ITMO within the Master’s-and-PhD track.