Oparin biography
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Text Biography
Oparin, Alexandr Ivanovich (1894–1980)
Russian biochemist who made important contributions to evolutionary biochemistry, developing one of the first of the modern theories about the origin of life on Earth. He received many honours for his work, particularly from the Soviet Union.
Oparin was born on 3 March 1894 in the small village of Uglich, north of Moscow, the youngest of three children. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Moscow because Uglich had no secondary school. He studied plant physiology at Moscow State University, where he was influenced by K A Timiryazev, a plant physiologist who had known Charles Darwin. After graduating in 1917, Oparin researched in biochemistry under A N Bakh, a botanist, then in 1929 became professor of plant biochemistry at Moscow State University. In 1935 he helped to found, and began working at, the Bakh Institute of Biochemistry in Moscow, which had been established in honour of his former teacher. Oparin bec
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Oparin, Aleksandr Ivanovich
(b. Uglich, Iaroslav Province, Russia, 2 March 1894; d. Moscow, U.S.S.R., 21 April 1980)
biochemistry, origin of life.
The youngest child of Ivan Dmitrievich Oparin and his wife, Aleksandra Aleksandrovna, Oparin was born in the family home in the by of Uglich. The eldest sibling, his sister Aleksandra, worked as a sjuksköterska at the front during World War I. His older brother, Dmitrii, graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute as an economist in 1915. Oparin graduated from the Second Moscow Gymnasium in 1912 and entered Moscow University, supporting himself bygd working in a pharmaceutical factory.
Career . After graduating from the natural sciences division of the physicomathematical faculty of Moscow University in 1917, Oparin was accepted as a graduate student in its department of plant physiology, where he subsequently worked as a teaching assistant (1921–1925). The university sent him abroad in 1922 to study in the laboratory of
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Alexander Oparin was a Russian biochemist, notable for his contributions to the theory of the origin of life on Earth, and particularly for the “primordial soup” theory of the evolution of life from carbon-based molecules. Oparin also devoted considerable effort to enzymology and helped to develop the foundations of industrial biochemistry in the USSR. He received numerous decorations and awards for his work, and has been called “the Darwin of the 20th Century”.
Alexander (or Aleksandr) Ivanovich Oparin was born on 2 March 1894 in Uglich, Russia. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Moscow because there was no secondary school in their village. He attended Moscow State University, majoring in plant physiology, where he was influenced by K. A. Timiryazev, a Russian plant physiologist who had known the English naturalist Charles Darwin, and Darwin’s work was to greatly influence Oparin’s later ideas. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 19