Primary milestones of life and work of T. Kocher are presented. Little-known interesting facts from the life of a professor who received surgical training in the famous clinics of T. Billroth and B. Langenbek are covered in this article. It is demonstrated that T. Kocher studied the problems of asepsis and antiseptics, abdominal surgery, thyroid surgery, and traumatology. It is noted that Kocher has developed methods for sterilizing suture material; He suggested operative access to the liver and bile ducts (an incision parallel to the right costal arch), an original technique for gastrectomy, methods for mobilization of the duodenum, surgical treatment of inguinal hernias, which are now described in textbooks. He also developed gentle operative approaches for performing operations on large joints (hook-shaped incisions). Kocher method of shoulder dislocation treatment according has become a part of the daily practice of surgeons and traumatologists. T. Kocher’s studies on goiter, thyrotoxicosis, goiter cretinism, iodine therapy and iodine prophylaxis of thyrotoxicosis, the essence of the Graves disease are world famous. It is stated that T. Kocher was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his work on physiology, pathology and thyroid surgery. He proposed some surgical instruments (hemostatic clamp, grooved probe, gastric clamp, etc.) that bear his name. Introduced a gastric tube. It is noted that T. Kocher was the president of the I International Congress of Surgeons (1905).