Zakharii Frenkel

Born Dec. 13 (25), 1869, in Borispol’, now in Kiev Oblast; died Aug. 25, 1970, in Leningrad. Soviet hygienist. Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1945).

In 1895, Frenkel’ graduated from the medical school of the University of Dorpat (now Tartu). He worked as a public-health physician. From 1906 to 1917 he was a member of the Constitutional Democrats and was subjected to persecution. Frenkel’ was one of the organizers of the departments of zemstvo medicine at the Dresden International Hygiene Exposition of 1911 and the All-Russian Hygiene Exposition of 1913. Beginning in 1910 he was a lecturer on social medicine at the Elena Institute (now the State Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians), the Institute of Experimental Medicine, and the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg. He headed the subdepartment of social hygiene at the Sanitary Hygienic Institute (1919–51) and the subdepartment of community hygiene at the Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians in Leningrad (1931–53).

Frenkel’s chief works dealt with community and social hygiene, gerontology, and medical statistics. He was chairman of the Leningrad Society of Hygienists from 1924 to 1953. Frenkel’ was awarded an Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.