Nikolai Petrovich Dubinin

Born Dec. 22, 1906 (Jan. 4, 1907), in Kronstadt. Soviet geneticist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966; corresponding member, 1946). Member of the CPSU since 1969.

Dubinin graduated from Moscow State University in 1928. From 1932 he worked in a number of research institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; since 1966 he has been director of the Institute of General Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His principal works have been on problems of general and evolutionary genetics and on the connection between genetics and agriculture. In particular, Dubinin (with A. S. Serebovskii) discovered the divisibility of the gene and the phenomenon of complementation, demonstrated (with B. N. Sidorov) the phenomenon of the effect of gene position, elaborated the idea of the integrity of the structure and function of the chromosome, and discovered the presence of lethal and sublethal mutations (the phenomenon of genetic load) in populations. He also worked out a number of problems of radiation and evolutionary genetics, conducted experiments in the field of cosmic genetics, and grounded and elaborated problems of stage wise development in mutation processes. He received the Lenin Prize in 1966. He is a member of a number of foreign academies of sciences and of the British Society of Geneticists.