Sergei Evgenevich Severin

Born Dec. 8 (21), 1901, in Moscow. Soviet biochemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968; corresponding member, 1953) and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1948). Hero of Socialist Labor (1971).

Severin graduated in 1924 from Moscow University, where he studied under V. S. Gulevich. From 1932 to 1948 he was a professor at the Third Moscow Medical Institute (now Riazan’ Medical Institute). In 1935 he founded a laboratory, and in 1939 he became head of the subdepartment of animal biochemistry at Moscow State University. In the years 1945–17, Severin was director of the nutrition institute of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, and in 1948 and 1949, director of the academy’s institute for biological and medical chemistry. From 1949 to 1957 he served as academician-secretary of the division of medical and biological sciences of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Severin became president of the All-Union Biochemical Society in 1969.

Severin’s main works deal with the biochemistry of muscle tissue and the role of the nitrogenous extractants in skeletal musculature—carnosine and anserine. In I960 he began his research in enzymology, concentrating on the enzymes involved in glycogenolysis and on the dehydrogenases of α-keto acids in skeletal musculature. He has also carried out studies on the biochemistry of the myocardium under normal functioning and on experimental pathology, as well as on the biochemistry of blood, particularly blood preservation. Severin is coauthor of A Textbook of Physical and Colloid Chemistrv (1941, with P. P. M i-trofanov) and A Laboratory Manual in Animal Biochemistry (1950, with N. P. Meshkova). He has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.