‘Freedom in the Equation’ Portraits at Science Center Remember Ukrainian Scientists

“Freedom in the Equation,” an art exhibition that showcases the stories of Ukrainian scientists, is on view at the Art Wall at Harvard’s Science Center until March 10. The series of 10 portraits spotlights Ukrainian scientists who made contributions of global importance to biology, physics, mathematics, and more scientific disciplines but were unable to see the benefits of their work because they were repressed or killed, either during Soviet times or in Russia’s current full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They were created by Niklas Elmehed, the official portrait artist for Nobel Prize laureates, symbolizing the significance of these scientists’ achievements.

“One question that is weaponized against Ukrainian scientists is, ‘Where are the Nobel Prizes?’ This is very hurtful to Ukrainian scientists. For one, it’s a very long process. It’s a very complicated process. It’s a process that requires infrastructure funding, and even before full scale invasion, funding for science was a very small percentage of the GDP of the country,” Kyrylo Beskorovainyi, one of the exhibition’s organizers, said in an interview with The Crimson.

Beskorovainyi is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. The fellowship is a year-long residency where journalists take classes at Harvard, host events, and collaborate with affiliates while exploring their research questions. Beskorovainyi’s work at Harvard has focused on how to improve and sustain science journalism in times of war and social crises. By highlighting how Ukrainian scientists have a low number of Nobel Prizes not because of a lack of scientific talent or worthiness but because of a lack of access to the opportunity, he hopes that this exhibit will start a conversation about these scientists.

“It’s our attempt to, once again, play around with this idea that those scientists could have gotten those portraits under different circumstances, but they could not because they were repressed, killed, or silenced,” Beskorovainyi said.

Serhii Plokhii, the Mykhailo S. Krushevs’kyi professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard, explained how, from Soviet times to now, Ukrainian scientists have faced roadblocks to conducting research — even just because of their status as ordinary Ukrainian citizens.

“The way how the war is shaped from the Ukrainian side, especially at the beginning, was basically that the army was very much a volunteer army, and a lot of people who volunteered were really people in academia and scientists as well. They are on the front line. They’re being killed like anybody else,” Plokhii said.

For example, Bijan Sharapov, one of the scientists depicted in the exhibition, was a biologist and science popularizer who was killed in action as a Ukrainian soldier in the Kharkiv Oblast in the spring of 2022. He also studied the TRPV1 protein, which is important in pain sensation. The discovery of the protein along with other temperature and touch receptors by Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutain earned the pair a Nobel Prize in 2021.

In recognition of the caliber of these scientists’ achievements and their obstacles to winning the Nobel Prize, the organizers chose Elmehed to create the portraits for the exhibition. As the official artist of the Nobel Prize since 2012, Elmehed has created dozens of portraits for Nobel Prize laureates, including recently for Harvard professors Gary B. Ruvkun and Claudia D. Goldin.

For this exhibit, he was tasked with maintaining his personal style while distinguishing the artworks from his original Nobel portraits. The colors of the Swedish flag, which he used for the first several years of the Nobel portraits, are the same colors as the Ukrainian flag, making this task more difficult. The Nobel Foundation is located in Stockholm, Sweden and its committees are made up of Swedish and Norwegian members.

“I had to invent something new. Actually, I was just experimenting with the outlines and trying to take those away and just based it on the forms inside of the head instead,” Elmehed said.

In Elmehed’s portraits, yellow shapes depict the major facial features of the scientists, while a bold blue emphasizes details like the eyes and hair. Laid against a white background, the portraits create a modern effect.

“The visual is extremely important in delivering the message and also working, not only in terms of producing new knowledge and new kinds of knowledge, but also bringing in us empathy and emotions,” Plokhii said.

Because the portraits can be printed and put up in almost any space, Beskorovainyi hopes to bring the exhibition to other universities across the United States, Europe, and Asia. By starting at Harvard, the exhibition has already gotten attention from other schools who hope to bring it to their campuses.

As the co-founder of Ukraine’s science popular media outlet Kunsht, Beskorovainyi helped create the Science at Risk project, of which one component is a database of Ukrainian scientists who people can learn more about and reach out to for collaboration or media comment. He hopes that by displaying this exhibition in the Science Center, which he described as “a boiling pot of ideas,” the exhibition will inspire Americans to connect with Ukrainian scientists.

“The best consequence of this exhibition would be to spark this interest in firstly, this component of freedom. But secondly, one more ideal thing is to spark interest in reaching out to Ukrainian scientists,” Beskorovainyi said.

“Freedom in the Equation” is on view at the Art Wall at the Science Center through March 10.

—Staff writer Hannah M. Wilkoff can be reached at hannah.wilkoff@thecrimson.com.