The Odesa I.I.Mechnykov National University (Ukrainian: Одеський національний університет Iмені І.І.Мечникова, romanized: Odeskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni I.I.Mechnykova), often referred to as Odesa National University (abbr. ONU, Ukrainian: Одеський національний університет, ОНУ), located in Odesa, Ukraine, is one of that country's major state-sponsored universities, named after the scientist Élie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), who studied immunology, microbiology, and evolutionary embryology, and won a Nobel Prize in 1908. The university was founded in 1865 by an edict of Emperor Alexander II of Russia which reorganized the Richelieu Lyceum of Odessa into the new Imperial Novorossiya University. In the Soviet era, the university was renamed Odesa I. I. Mechnykov State University (lit. "Odesa State University named after I. I. Mechnykov").
Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University comprises four institutes, ten faculties, and seven specialized councils. The university is famous for its scientific library, the largest and oldest of any university in Ukraine (3,600,000 volumes, dating from the 15th century to the present day).
