BIOLOGISTS from Ukraine

Top 9

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

1. Élie Metchnikoff (1845 - 1916)

With an HPI of 70.73, Élie Metchnikoff is the most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 78 different languages on wikipedia.

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (Russian: Илья Ильич Мечников; 15 May [O.S. 3 May] 1845 – 15 July 1916), also spelled Élie Metchnikoff, was a zoologist from the Russian Empire of Moldavian noble ancestry best known for his pioneering research in immunology (study of immune systems) and thanatology (study of death). He and Paul Ehrlich were jointly awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of their work on immunity". Mechnikov was born in a region of the Russian Empire that is today part of modern-day Ukraine to a Moldavian noble father and a Ukrainian-Jewish mother, and later on continued his career in France. Given this complex heritage, five different nations and peoples lay claim to Metchnikoff. Despite having a mother of Jewish origin, he was baptized Russian Orthodox, although he later became an atheist. Honoured as the "father of innate immunity", Metchnikoff was the first to discover a process of immunity called phagocytosis and the cell responsible for it, called phagocyte, specifically macrophage, in 1882. This discovery turned out to be the major defence mechanism in innate immunity, as well as the foundation of the concept of cell-mediated immunity, while Ehrlich established the concept of humoral immunity to complete the principles of immune system. Their works are regarded as the foundation of the science of immunology. Metchnikoff developed one of the earliest concepts in ageing, and advocated the use of lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus) for healthy and long life. This became the concept of probiotics in medicine. Mechnikov is also credited with coining the term gerontology in 1903, for the emerging study of aging and longevity. In this regard, Ilya Mechnikov is called the "father of gerontology" (although, as often happens in science, the situation is ambiguous, and the same title is sometimes applied to some other people who contributed to aging research later). Supporters of life extension celebrate 15 May as Metchnikoff Day, and used it as a memorable date for organizing activities.

2. Trofim Lysenko (1898 - 1976)

With an HPI of 64.93, Trofim Lysenko is the 2nd most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (Russian: Трофи́м Дени́сович Лысе́нко; Ukrainian: Трохи́м Дени́сович Лисе́нко, romanized: Trokhym Denysovych Lysenko, IPA: [troˈxɪm deˈnɪsowɪtʃ lɪˈsɛnko]; 29 September [O.S. 17 September] 1898 – 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and scientist. He was a proponent of Lamarckism, and rejected Mendelian genetics in favour of his own idiosyncratic, pseudoscientific ideas later termed Lysenkoism. In 1940, Lysenko became director of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and he used his political influence and power to suppress dissenting opinions and discredit, marginalize, and imprison his critics, elevating his anti-Mendelian theories to state-sanctioned doctrine. Soviet scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute. Hundreds if not thousands of others were imprisoned. Several were sentenced to death as enemies of the state, including the botanist Nikolai Vavilov, whose sentence was commuted to prison. Lysenko's ideas and practices contributed to the famines that killed millions of Soviet people; the adoption of his methods from 1958 in the People's Republic of China had similarly calamitous results, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959 to 1961.

3. Waldemar Haffkine (1860 - 1930)

With an HPI of 58.37, Waldemar Haffkine is the 3rd most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine , born Vladimir Aronovich (Markus-Volf) Khavkin (Russian: Владимир Аронович (Маркус-Вольф) Хавкин; 15 March 1860 – 26 October 1930) was a Russian-French bacteriologist known for his pioneering work in vaccines. Haffkine was educated at the Imperial Novorossiya University and later emigrated first to Switzerland, then to France, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed a cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully in India. He is recognized as the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. He tested the vaccines on himself. Joseph Lister, named him "a saviour of humanity". He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours. At that time The Jewish Chronicle noted "a Ukraine Jew, trained in the schools of European science, saves the lives of Hindus and Mohammedans and is decorated by the descendant of William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great." He naturalised as a British subject in 1900. In his final years Haffkine became more religious, becoming an advocate and philanthropist for Orthodox Jewish causes and a supporter of Zionism.

4. Ludwik Fleck (1896 - 1961)

With an HPI of 57.17, Ludwik Fleck is the 4th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Ludwik Fleck (Polish pronunciation: [lud.vik flɛk]; 11 July 1896 – 5 June 1961) was a Polish Jewish and Israeli physician and biologist who did important work in epidemic typhus in Lwów, Poland, with Rudolf Weigl and in the 1930s developed the concepts of the "Denkstil" ("thought style") and the "Denkkollektiv" ("thought collective"). The concept of the "thought collective" defined by him is important in the philosophy of science and in logology (the "science of science"), helping to explain how scientific ideas change over time, much as in Thomas Kuhn's later notion of the "paradigm shift" (on the possible influence of Fleck on Kuhn see) and in Michel Foucault's concept of the "episteme". His account of the development of facts at the intersection of active elements of the thought collective and the passive resistances of nature provides a way of considering the particular culture of modern science as evolutionary and evidence-oriented.

5. Alexander Georg von Bunge (1803 - 1890)

With an HPI of 56.75, Alexander Georg von Bunge is the 5th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Alexander Georg von Bunge (Russian: Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Бу́нге; 6 October [O.S. 24 September] 1803 – 18 July [O.S. 6 July] 1890) was a Russian botanist. He is best remembered for scientific expeditions into Asia and especially Siberia.

6. Sergei Winogradsky (1856 - 1953)

With an HPI of 56.62, Sergei Winogradsky is the 6th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Sergei Nikolaevich Winogradsky (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Виноградский; Ukrainian: Сергій Миколайович Виноградський; 13 September [O.S. 1 September] 1856, Kyiv – 24 February 1953, Brie-Comte-Robert), also published under the name Sergius Winogradsky, was a Ukrainian and Russian microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who pioneered the cycle-of-life concept. Winogradsky discovered the first known form of lithotrophy during his research with Beggiatoa in 1887. He reported that Beggiatoa oxidized hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as an energy source and formed intracellular sulfur droplets. This research provided the first example of lithotrophy, but not autotrophy. Born in the capital of present-day Ukraine, his legacy is also celebrated by this nation. His research on nitrifying bacteria would report the first known form of chemoautotrophy, showing how a lithotroph fixes carbon dioxide (CO2) to make organic compounds. He is best known in school science as the inventor of the Winogradsky column technique for the study of sediment microbes.

7. Michał Boym (1614 - 1659)

With an HPI of 54.85, Michał Boym is the 7th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Michał Piotr Boym, SJ (Chinese: 卜彌格; pinyin: Bǔ Mígé; c. 1612 – 1659) was a Polish Jesuit missionary to China, scientist and explorer. He was an early Western traveller within the Chinese mainland, and the author of numerous works on Asian fauna, flora and geography. The first European Chinese dictionary, published in 1670, is attributed to Boym.

8. Ivan Martinov (1771 - 1833)

With an HPI of 51.30, Ivan Martinov is the 8th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Ivan Ivanovich Martinov (the last name also spelled Martynov, Russian: Иван Иванович Мартынов; 1771 – 1833 in Saint Peterburg) was a Russian botanist and philologist. He died on October 20 (November 1), 1833.

9. Alexander Alfonsovich Grossheim (1888 - 1948)

With an HPI of 42.32, Alexander Alfonsovich Grossheim is the 9th most famous Ukrainian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Alexander Alfonsovich Grossheim (6 March 1888 – 4 December 1948) was a Soviet botanist of German descent. He traveled widely over the Caucasus region collecting and studying various different plant life. He is most known for Pteridophytes and Spermatophytes species.