Viktor Stepanovich Gutyria

Born Aug. 29 (Sept. 11), 1910, in the village of Siniavskoe, in present-day Nek-linovka Raion, Rostov Oblast. Soviet petroleum chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR (1949), corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953), and academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1961). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Gutyria graduated from the Azerbaijan Petroleum Institute in 1932, whereupon he worked in the Azerbaijan Scientific Research Institute of the Petroleum Refining Industry (until 1959). He then worked in the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, becoming its vice-president in 1963. His major works are linked with the investigation of the petroleum of Azerbaijan and the Ukraine and with the development of catalytic processes for transforming hydrocarbons. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1942), Gutyria has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.