In 1976, Oleksandr Yu. Petrenko graduated from O.M. Gorky Kharkiv State University, in 1984 he defended his PhD thesis and in 1993 – doctoral thesis in specialties “Cryobiology and Biochemistry”. Since 1998, he has been a professor in the specialty “Cell Biology”. Since 1999, he is the Head of the Department of Cryobiochemistry, and since 2021 – Director of the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Oleksandr Yu. Petrenko is a well-known expert in cryobiology, biochemistry, cell biology, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, experimental cell transplantation and hypothermic organ preservation. His findings are reported in more than 500 scientific papers, including 14 patents and 2 monographs. He has authored and co-authored 38 papers published in Q1, Q2 journals of the Web of Science relevant sections. The H-index of Oleksandr Petrenko is ranked as 20 (Google Scholar), and 16 (Scopus). He is also a Professor at the UNESCO Chair in Cryobiology and the Department of Biochemistry at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, where he teaches the author’s course “Stem Cell Biology”. Oleksandr Petrenko has trained 1 doctor and 20 PhD students.
For his scientific achievements in cryobiology and biochemistry, O.Yu. Petrenko is awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology, the Palladin Prize of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Memorial Award of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and I.I. Mechnikov Fellowships of Kharkiv Regional State Administration in medicine. Oleksandr Petrenko worked as a visiting professor at the Universities of the United Kingdom, Israel, France and Canada. He has been a scientific advisor for the Wellcome Trust and STCU grant projects, as well as the joint Ukraine-Israel research projects. Currently, he is the head of a joint Ukrainian-Czech project and the responsible contractor from the Ukrainian side of the Visegrad+ project. Oleksandr Yu. Petrenko is a member of the Editorial Boards of foreign and national scientific journals.