Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) was founded in 1896 as the Tomsk Technological Institute — Russia's first technical university east of the Urals. Today it is one of Russia's leading research universities, with particular strengths in engineering, nuclear technology, and resource extraction sciences. The main campus building, a grand neo-Russian structure on Lenin Avenue, is architecturally significant and worth a look from outside.
The university's Engineering Chemistry Building and the historic main administration block are particularly fine examples of early 20th-century institutional architecture. The campus sits in the university district alongside Tomsk State University, and the two together give this part of the city a genuine university-town atmosphere that feels quite different from most of Siberia.
The university's scientific museums are occasionally open to the public by arrangement — the geology museum has good collections of Siberian minerals and fossils. Worth a brief detour if you are already in the university district.