Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich

(25.11.1887 - 26.01.1943);
After graduating from the Moscow Commercial College Vavilov in 1906. entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute (now - Moscow Agricultural Academy. Timiryazev), who graduated in 1910. Inclinations and interests that distinguished scholar in the future, appeared very early: in 1908, Mr.. He participates in the expeditionary mission of students to the Caucasus in 1909. delivers a report on Darwinism, in 1910. completes and prints the thesis are devoted to the protection of crops from pests, in 1912. in the article "Genetics and its relation to agronomy" the first in Russia and one of the first in the world draws a clear program of implementation of genetics in the improvement of varieties of cultivated plants. In 1913-1914. Vavilov probation in the leading genetic and crop institutions in Western Europe. His teacher in genetics, he believes William Bateson, who has worked in England. In 1916, Mr.. commits an expedition to Iran and the mountains of Central Asia, studying their cultural flora. In 1917-1921 he. - Professor at the University of Saratov, where he maintains teaching and research work, studying the characteristics of agriculture in the Volga region and the variability of cultivated plants. To this period belongs, and one of its main scientific generalizations: in 1920,. Vavilov formulated the law of homologous series in hereditary variation, will systematize before the scattered facts in the study of climate variability and to predict the possibility of finding new forms of plants. In early 1921. moved to Petrograd, taking the post of head of the Department of Applied Botany and Selection. On the basis of the Division in 1924. was organized by the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (from 1930. - All-Union Institute of Plant Industry - VIR), whose director was Vavilov. VPIBiNK was the center of crystallization during the formation of Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences. VI. Lenin. Vavilov deservedly became its first president (until 1935; in 1935-1940. He - Vice President of Agricultural Sciences). In the system of Agricultural Sciences quickly established a network of institutions for the branch and territorial principle, covered the whole country. Numerous offices and experimental stations VIR, as well as institutes of Agricultural Sciences, Vavilov led the most direct. By 20 th - early 30-ies are numerous expeditions to collect and study of cultivated plants, Vavilov, who has committed himself or that he organized and attended by his staff. Many of his trips have been subject to great hardship and risk, particularly difficult and dangerous expedition were in Afghanistan (1924) and Ethiopia (1927). For the first one scientist was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Geographical Society "for the geographical feat". In 1931-1940 he. Vavilov was the president of the All-Union Geographical Society. The collection of plant specimens collected by scientists and his staff and they are systematically studied, was the largest in the world and reached 200 thousand forms. On this basis had been established and continues to create many domestic varieties of crops. Proper monitoring and study of collections of lead NI. Vavilov to the creation in 1926. theory of centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants, according to which the cultivated flora originated and evolved in relatively few geographic centers, located mainly in mountainous areas. Teachings of the centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants is targeted Vavilov expedition, which were based on his theory and undertaken by deliberate plan. In VlR Vavilov was a department of genetics, which was led by GD Karpechenko. In 1930. Vavilov headed the country's first academic institution in genetics - a laboratory, three years later became the Institute of Genetics, USSR Academy of Sciences. In this facility were collected young talented researchers, representatives of the Leningrad school of genetics - ML Bel'govskaya, Yu Ya Kerkis, NN Kolesnikov, TK Lepine, J. J. Luz, NN Medvedev, AA Prokofiev. This is for work were invited and well-known foreign scientists (among them - a future Nobel Prize-winning American G. Muller, Bulgarian cytogeneticist Doncho Kostov). In 1933. Institute of Genetics, was transferred to Moscow. In 1923, Mr.. Vavilov was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929. - A member of the USSR. He was elected as a member of Agricultural Sciences, . Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (England), . Czechoslovak, . Scottish, . Indian, . Germany (in Halle) Academy of Sciences, . Linnean Society of London, . American Botanical Society and several other national and international organizations,
. Since the mid 30-ies. Vavilov and his staff were involved in the debate on genetics and breeding. In the last period of his life Vavilov had to bravely defend and their scientific beliefs, and its line of application of science in the practice of agriculture. In these discussions, he was the chief opponent of Lysenko, who rejected the laws of heredity and presents geneticists political charges. In August 1940. Vavilov was arrested and suffered hours-long interrogations, the court sentenced him to capital punishment - shot, prolonged detention on death row. Later, the death sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment. In January 1943. in the Saratov prison Vavilov died of starvation.