Volfkovich, Semen Isaakovich

Born Oct. 11 (23), 1896, in the city of Anan’ev, now in Odessa Oblast. Soviet chemist and technologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946).

Vol’fkovich graduated from the Moscow Institute of the National Economy in 1920. In 1921 he began working in the Ia. V. Samoilov Scientific Research Institute of Fertilizers, Insecticides, and Fungicides, where he was scientific director from 1935 to 1961. He was a professor at the Moscow Institute of the National Economy and the Moscow Higher Technical School from 1929, at the Military Academy of Chemical Defense from 1932, and at Moscow University from 1946. He is the author of works dealing with the processing of Khibiny apatites, Karatau phosphate rock, and other types of raw material and with the technology of obtaining concentrated and complex fertilizers and feeds for livestock. Vol’fkovich took part in creating the mineral fertilizer industry in the USSR and in introducing chemical processes into agriculture. In 1937 he became a member of the presidium of the D. I. Mendeleev All-Union Chemistry Society and in 1963, its president. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1941 and has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals, including the D. I. Mendeleev Gold Medal.