Perfilev, Boris Vasilevich

Born March 1891 in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 29, 1969, in Leningrad. Soviet microbiologist; inventor of capillary microscopy.

In 1916, Perfil’ev graduated from the natural-sciences department of the University of St. Petersburg, where in 1940 he became a professor. In 1919 he became a research supervisor at the Borodino Biological Station and from 1935 to 1950 served as the station’s director. From 1952 to 1964 he worked at the

Laboratory of Hydrogeologic Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and from 1965 to 1967 at the Institute of Cytology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His principal works were on the biology of blue-green algae, the role of microorganisms in the formation of iron and manganese ores, theoretical problems of limnology, and applications of microbiology to methods of geologic exploration. Perfil’ev proposed a hypothesis (1927) concerning the zonal structure of slime deposits. He worked out methods of isolating and microscopically examining the microflora of slimes, thus providing new directions for the study of the ecology of microorganisms. He described 30 new genera and three new orders of microorganisms. Perfil’ev received the State Prize in 1941 and the Lenin Prize in 1964.