Mikhail Chumakov

Born Nov. 1 (14), 1909, in the village of Ivanovka, in what is now Volyn’ Raion, Orel Oblast. Soviet microbiologist and virologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960; corresponding member, 1948). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Chumakov graduated from the First Moscow Medical Institute in 1931. He was director of the D. I. Ivanovskii Institute of Virology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR from 1950 to 1954. He was director of the academy’s Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides (founded on his initiative) from 1955 to 1972; he served as scientific director of the institute from 1972 to 1976.

Chumakov’s work has mainly been devoted to the etiology, immunology, laboratory diagnosis, epidemiology, prophylaxis, and treatment of human viral diseases. Among the diseases he has studied are Russian spring-summer and mosquito-borne encephalitides, poliomyelitis, enteroviral diseases, measles, influenza, and trachoma. Chumakov discovered several viruses that are pathogenic for man and developed a theory of hemorrhagic fevers. He assisted in the development of vaccines for poliomyelitis, measles, Russian spring-summer and Japanese B encephalitides, and other diseases. He also helped organize mass immunization campaigns against poliomyelitis, which resulted in the rapid eradication of poliomyelitis epidemics in the USSR and many other countries.

Chumakov has been awarded three orders, several medals, the Lenin Prize (1963), the State Prize of the USSR (1941), and the D. I. Ivanovskii Prize of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1953). He became a member of the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists in 1969.