More than 100 years of academic excellence, interdisciplinary inquiry and social commitment. The University dates back to 1915, when the Imperial University of Warsaw opened in 1817 by Emperor Alexander I, was evacuated to Rostov-on-Don.
The USSR's first ever microcircuit and Russia's first acoustic chamber (stealth technology) were developed at SFedU. SFedU graduates and scientists participated in development, launch and operation of the first planet research vehicles (Lunokhod-1,2,3) as well as in the first Earth orbiting satellite delivery and human space flight preparation. Three Nobel laureates were the honorary doctors of SFedU: Charles Percy Snow, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mikhail Sholokhov. An outstanding microbiologist and graduate of SFedU Zinaida Ermolyeva is most notable for independently synthesizing penicillin, which saved thousands of lives during World War II. She is known as "Madame Penicillin" abroad.