Nikolay Ivanovich VavilovDied 26 Jan 1943 at age 55 (born 25 Nov 1887).Russian botanist and plant geneticist who established 400 research institutes and made expeditions throughout the world (1916-33), leading Russian plant hunters on the first attempt to “cover the globe”in search of wild plants and primitive cultivators. He brought back a huge collection of plants samples for experiments in plant breeding in order to improve the productivity of cereal grains, as well as some other types of crops. Trofim Lysenko, the official Soviet biology spokesman, denounced Vavilov's Mendelevian genetics as counter to the dogmas of communism. He was arrested in 1940 and imprisoned at a concentration camp at Saratov, where he spent his final years. He died there of malnutrition.[EB gives birth date as New Style 25 Nov 1887 (Old Style 13 Nov 1887).] |