Sergei Chetverikov

Chetverikov, Sergei Sergeevich 

Born Apr. 24 (May 6), 1880, in Moscow; died July 2, 1959, in Gorky. Soviet biologist.

Chetverikov graduated from Moscow University in 1906. He was a docent at the Women’s Higher Educational Institution in Moscow from 1909 to 1917, at the Second Moscow University from 1917 to 1919, and at the First Moscow University from 1919 to 1929. He also headed the genetics department at the Institute of Experimental Biology in Moscow from 1921 to 1929 and the department of genetics at the University of Gorky from 1935 to 1948 (professor from 1938).

Chetverikov’s main fields of study were genetics, the theory of evolution, and entomology. He was the first to introduce the concepts of the impregnation of species in nature with emerging mutations, the significance of such genetic processes as mutation, free interbreeding, and selection, and isolation in species formation and evolution. Chetverikov bridged the gap between Darwin’s teachings and genetics by laying down the principles of evolutionary genetics. For his work in the development of evolutionary science, the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists (German Democratic Republic) awarded Chetverikov the Darwin Plankette in 1959. He was also awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and several medals.

WORKS

“Volny zhizni.” Izv. ob-va liubitelei estestvoznaniia, antropologii i etnografii, 1905, vol. 98.
“O nekotorykh momentakh evoliutsionnogo protsessa s tochki zreniia sovremennoi genetiki.” Klassikisovetskoigeneliki. Leningrad, 1968.
“On Certain Aspects of the Evolutionary Process From the Standpoint of Modern Genetics.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1961, vol. 105, no. 2.

REFERENCES

Astaurov, B. L. “Zhizn’ S. S. Chetverikova.” Priroda, 1974, no. 2.
Rokitskii, P. F. “S. S. Chetverikov i razvitie evoliutsionnoi genetiki.” Iz istorii biologii, 5th ed. Moscow, 1975.
Adams, M. B. “The Founding of Population Genetics: Contribution of the Chetverikov School: 1924–34.” Journal of the History of Biology, 1968, vol. 1, no. 1.
Dobzhansky, T. “Sergei Sergeevich Tshetverikow, 1880–1959. Genetics, 1967, vol. 55, no. 1.

P. F. ROKITSKII