The Most Famous

BIOLOGISTS from Russia

This page contains a list of the greatest Russian Biologists. The pantheon dataset contains 1,097 Biologists, 23 of which were born in Russia. This makes Russia the birth place of the 7th most number of Biologists behind Sweden, and Switzerland.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Russian Biologists of all time. This list of famous Russian Biologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Russian Biologists.

1. Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

With an HPI of 79.34, Ivan Pavlov is the most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 97 different languages on wikipedia.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов, IPA: [ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf] ; 26 September [O.S. 14 September] 1849 – 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.

2. Vladimir Vernadsky (1863 - 1945)

With an HPI of 66.65, Vladimir Vernadsky is the 2nd most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 57 different languages.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, also spelt Volodymyr Ivanovych Vernadsky (Russian: Владимир Иванович Вернадский; Ukrainian: Володимир Іванович Вернадський; 12 March [O.S. 28 February] 1863 – 6 January 1945), was a Russian, Ukrainian, and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Vladimir Vernadsky is most noted for his 1926 book The Biosphere in which he inadvertently worked to popularize Eduard Suess's 1875 term biosphere, by hypothesizing that life is the geological force that shapes the earth. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize. Vernadsky's portrait is depicted on the Ukrainian ₴1,000 hryvnia banknote.

3. Nikolai Vavilov (1887 - 1943)

With an HPI of 65.16, Nikolai Vavilov is the 3rd most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 51 different languages.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ vɐˈvʲiləf] ; 25 November [O.S. 13 November] 1887 – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and Soviet agronomist, botanist and geneticist who identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, maize and other cereal crops that sustain the global population. Vavilov became the youngest member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. He was a member of the USSR Central Executive Committee, a recipient of the Lenin Prize, and president of All-Union Geographical Society. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vavilov's work was criticized by Trofim Lysenko, whose anti-Mendelian concepts of plant biology had won favor with Joseph Stalin. As a result, Vavilov was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death in July 1941. Although his sentence was commuted to twenty years' imprisonment, he died in prison in 1943. In 1955, his death sentence was retroactively pardoned under Nikita Khrushchev. By the late 1950s, his reputation was publicly rehabilitated, and he began to be hailed as a hero of Soviet science.

4. Alexander Oparin (1894 - 1980)

With an HPI of 64.54, Alexander Oparin is the 4th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 57 different languages.

Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (Russian: Александр Иванович Опарин; 2 March [O.S. 18 February] 1894 – 21 April 1980) was a Soviet biochemist notable for his theories about the origin of life and for his book The Origin of Life. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants and enzyme reactions in plant cells. He showed that many food production processes were based on biocatalysis and developed the foundations for industrial biochemistry in the USSR.

5. Dmitri Ivanovsky (1864 - 1920)

With an HPI of 63.98, Dmitri Ivanovsky is the 5th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky (alternative spelling Dmitrii or Dmitry Iwanowski; Russian: Дми́трий Ио́сифович Ивано́вский; 28 October 1864 – 20 June 1920) was a Russian botanist, the co-discoverer of viruses (1892), and one of the founders of virology.

6. Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (1855 - 1935)

With an HPI of 63.33, Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin is the 6th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (Russian: Иван Владимирович Мичурин; October 27 [O.S. October 15] 1855 – June 7, 1935) was a Russian practitioner of selection to produce new types of crop plants, Honorable Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and academician of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agriculture. Throughout all his life, Michurin worked to create new sorts of fruit plants. He introduced over 300 new varieties. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and Order of the Red Banner of Labour for his achievements. The town of Michurinsk is named in his honor, as was the Bulgarian town of Tsarevo between 1950 and 1991.

7. Nikolay Pirogov (1810 - 1881)

With an HPI of 62.37, Nikolay Pirogov is the 7th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (Russian: Николай Иванович Пирогов; 25 November [O.S. 13 November] 1810 — 5 December [O.S. 23 November] 1881) was a Russian scientist, medical doctor, pedagogue, public figure, and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1847), one of the most widely recognized Russian physicians. Considered to be the founder of field surgery, he was the first surgeon to use anaesthesia in a field operation (1847) and one of the first surgeons in Europe to use ether as an anaesthetic. He is credited with the invention of various kinds of surgical operations and developing his own technique of using plaster casts to treat fractured bones.

8. Vladimir Demikhov (1916 - 1998)

With an HPI of 57.06, Vladimir Demikhov is the 8th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (Russian: Владимир Петрович Демихов; 31 July 1916 – 22 November 1998) was a Soviet Russian scientist and organ transplantation pioneer, who performed several transplants in the 1940s and 1950s, including the transplantation of a heart into an animal and a heart–lung replacement in an animal. He is also well known for his dog head transplants, which he conducted during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed dogs. This ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Robert White, who was inspired by Demikhov's work.

9. Nikolai Severtzov (1827 - 1885)

With an HPI of 55.44, Nikolai Severtzov is the 9th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Nikolai Alekseyevich Severtsov (Russian: Николай Алексеевич Северцов; 5 November 1827 – 7 February 1885) was a Russian explorer and naturalist. He was among the early promoters of Darwinian ideas in Russia.

10. Alexander von Middendorff (1815 - 1894)

With an HPI of 55.28, Alexander von Middendorff is the 10th most famous Russian Biologist. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (Russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ми́ддендорф; tr. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Middendorf; 18 August 1815 – 24 January 1894) was a Russian zoologist and explorer of Baltic German and Estonian extraction. He is known for his expedition 1843–45 to the extreme north and east of Siberia, describing the effects of permafrost on the spread of animals and plants.

People

Pantheon has 26 people classified as Russian biologists born between 1740 and 1937. Of these 26, 1 (3.85%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Russian biologists include Nikolay Drozdov. The most famous deceased Russian biologists include Ivan Pavlov, Vladimir Vernadsky, and Nikolai Vavilov. As of April 2024, 3 new Russian biologists have been added to Pantheon including Dmitry Belyayev, Zinaida Yermolyeva, and Victor Motschulsky.