On the history of student scientific societies in public health: scientific circles at the Department of Social Hygiene

This paper examines key aspects of the formation and work of student scientific circles at the Department of Social Hygiene and the Department of Public Health and Healthcare of Sechenov University. Russia’s first scientific circles were established at Imperial Moscow University. Learned societies, such as the Moscow Society of Naturalists and the Moscow Society of History and Russian Antiquities, also emerged. Staff at the Department of Social Hygiene, established in 1922 at the Faculty of Medicine of First Moscow State University, began addressing issues relating to the health of workers and mitigation of adverse social factors affecting workers’ health. One of the tasks facing the student scientific circle created at the Department of Social Hygiene on 3 November 1922 was to familiarise students with the research and practical work of the department’s staff and to introduce them to research work. Today, the primary tasks of the student scientific circle at the Department of Public Health and Healthcare of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University are: improving the level of training of medical professionals, preserving, maintaining, and advancing the traditions of domestic medical education, creating an environment to foster young talent, promoting creative thinking, interest in the profession and research among students, facilitating the practical implementation of research, popularising scientific knowledge, and providing career guidance to students interested in research for their subsequent enrolment for fellowship. The make-up of the student scientific circle changes every year. Its members carry out their first scientific research, which they present as papers.