Shvarts, Stanislav Semenovich

Born Apr. 1,1919, in Ekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk; died May 12, 1976, in Sverdlovsk. Soviet zoologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970; corresponding member, 1966). Member of the CPSU from 1958.

Shvarts graduated from Leningrad State University in 1942. In 1946 he began working at the Urals Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and from 1955 to 1976 he was director of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (the original name of the Institute of Biology). In 1952 he organized the laboratory of animal population ecology and became its director.

Shvarts’ main works dealt with animal ecology. Shvarts developed a system of morphophysiological indicators for determining the state of animal populations and for predicting their growth; he also introduced new concepts concerning the ecological mechanisms of the evolutionary process in nature and the metabolic regulation of the rate of growth and development in animal populations. He made major contributions to the development of animal population ecology (the concept of the biological distinctiveness of seasonal generations of animals) and the chemical ecology of aquatic animals. Shvarts directed a multifaceted investigation of the nature of the far north.

Shvarts was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and various medals. He received the A. N. Severtsov Prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.