Nikolai Ierusalimskii

Born Jan. 4 (17), 1901, in Tula; died May 16, 1967, in Moscow. Soviet microbiologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966; corresponding member, 1960). Became a member of the CPSU in 1946.

Ierusalimskii graduated from Moscow University in 1931. He worked at the Scientific Research Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute in Moscow from 1930 to 1935, the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of the Fermentation Industry from 1935 to 1938, and at the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1938 to 1962. Ierusalimskii founded the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, becoming its director in 1966. He was also a professor at Moscow University from 1954.

Ierusalimskii’s principal works were on the physiology and biochemistry of microorganisms, as well as on the principles of their growth and development. His investigations created the prerequisites for the mathematical modeling of the processes of periodic and continuous culturing of microorganisms. They also laid the basis for the development of a number of microbiological industries. Ierusalimskii conducted research on the problem of obtaining proteins from petroleum products through microbiological synthesis. He received the State Prize of the USSR posthumously in 1971. He was awarded two orders and various medals.