Nikolai Grigorevich Kholodnyi

Born June 10 (22), 1882, in Tambov; died May 4, 1953, in Kiev. Soviet botanist and microbiologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929; corresponding member, 1925); Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR (1945).

Kholodnyi graduated from the University of Kiev in 1907. He taught at the university until 1941 (from 1926, professor). Kholodnyi established the chair of microbiology there, occupying it from 1933. From 1920 to 1949 he also worked at the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. (The institute was named for him in 1971.)

Kholodnyi made a great contribution to the study of plant hormones. At almost the same time as F. W. Went (1927), he formulated the theory of the phytohormonal nature of tropisms (Kholodnyi-Went theory). Kholodnyi also studied the ecology of the reproduction and distribution of flowering plants. His works dealt with soil science and the physiology and morphology of iron bacteria. He proposed new methods of quantitating soil-borne bacteria. He also studied the volatile organic secretions of plants. Kholodnyi was awarded an Order of Lenin.