Abir Ubayevich Igamberdiev (Russian: Абир Убаевич Игамбердиев, also known as Andrei Igamberdiev) (born 4 July 1959) is a Russian-Canadian

theoretical biologist Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development a ...

and plant scientist. He is professor at

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, or MUN (), is a Public university, public research university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook ...

, Canada. He is most known for his research on organization of

plant metabolism Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tropi ...

, for the conceptual development of foundations of theoretical biology, and for his works on history and philosophy of science.

Early life and education

Igamberdiev was born in

Alma-Ata Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, near the border wi ...

(

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

) and lived in

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

(Russia) where he studied

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

at Voronezh State University. He earned a PhD in biology from the same university in 1985 and a

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

degree at the Institute of Plant Physiology of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

in Moscow in 1992. In the 1990s he was a guest scientist at

Umeå University Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present bord ...

(Sweden),

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

(Germany),

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

(US), and

Risø National Laboratory Denmark imports but does not produce nuclear energy, which is in accordance with a 1985 law passed by the Danish parliament, prohibiting power production from nuclear energy. In 2014 and 2015, imported nuclear power accounted for 3-4% of electrici ...

(Denmark). In 2002, he permanently moved to Canada where he worked at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

(

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

) and then at the Memorial University of Newfoundland ( St. John's,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

), where he is currently a professor at the Department of Biology.

Professional activity

Igamberdiev has published over 250 peer-reviewed

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

publications and several edited books. He currently is editor-in-chief of the

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

journal

BioSystems ''BioSystems'' is a monthly peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal covering experimental, computational, and theoretical research that links biology, evolution, and the Information processing (psychology), information processing sciences. ...

and a subject editor of the Journal of Plant Physiology. Abir Igamberdiev's research focuses on the organization of

metabolism Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the co ...

bioenergetics Bioenergetics is a field in biochemistry and cell biology that concerns energy flow through living systems. This is an active area of biological research that includes the study of the transformation of energy in living organisms and the study o ...

plant cell Plant cells are the cells present in Viridiplantae, green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids ...

s, plant

enzymology An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

, plant

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the p ...

to hypoxic stress,

nitric oxide Nitric oxide (nitrogen oxide, nitrogen monooxide, or nitrogen monoxide) is a colorless gas with the formula . It is one of the principal oxides of nitrogen. Nitric oxide is a free radical: it has an unpaired electron, which is sometimes den ...

metabolism in plants and the role of plant

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin ...

s, foundations of theoretical biology,

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

, and dynamics of

social system In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal Social structure, structure of role and status that can form in a smal ...

s.Igamberdiev, A.U. (2017) Evolutionary transition from biological to social systems via generation of reflexive models of externality. ''Prog. Biophys. Mol. Biol.'' 131: 336–347 Abir Igamberdiev has contributed to the characterization of metabolic pathways and enzymes of plant respiratory metabolism and to the discovery that plant

mitochondria A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is us ...

use

nitrite The nitrite polyatomic ion, ion has the chemical formula . Nitrite (mostly sodium nitrite) is widely used throughout chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The nitrite anion is a pervasive intermediate in the nitrogen cycle in nature. The name ...

as an alternative

electron acceptor An electron acceptor is a chemical entity that accepts electrons transferred to it from another compound. Electron acceptors are oxidizing agents. The electron accepting power of an electron acceptor is measured by its redox potential. In the ...

under anoxia (

anaerobic respiration Anaerobic respiration is respiration using electron acceptors other than molecular oxygen (O2). Although oxygen is not the final electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain. In aerobic organisms undergoing ...

) and produce

, which is scavenged by

phytoglobin Phytoglobins are globular plant (algae and land plant) proteins classified into the globin superfamily, which contain a heme, ''i''.''e''. protoporphyrin IX-Fe, prosthetic group. The earliest known phytoglobins are leghemoglobins, discovered in ...

. He developed the concept of

thermodynamic Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...

buffering in metabolism that supports stable non-equilibrium dynamics of

living systems Living systems are life forms (or, more colloquially known as living things) treated as a system. They are said to be open self-organizing and said to interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy an ...

. He introduced the concept of internal

quantum state In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system ...

of living systems that maintains their

computation A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, hist ...

al properties and determines

morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek ''morphê'' shape and ''genesis'' creation, literally "the generation of form") is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of deve ...

and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. Evolution of social systems is viewed by Igamberdiev as a continuous generation and interaction of reflexive models of externality that trigger

social dynamics Social dynamics (or sociodynamics) is the study of the behavior of groups and of the interactions of individual group members, aiming to understand the emergence of complex social behaviors among microorganisms, plants and animals, including h ...

and establish the structure of societies.

Essays and works of fiction

Abir Igamberdiev is an author of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

and essays on classical music, literature and philosophy in Russian.

References

External links

Igamberdiev’s Homepage at Memorial University of Newfoundland

{{DEFAULTSORT:Igamberdiev, Abir 1959 births Living people 20th-century Russian scientists 21st-century Russian biologists 20th-century Canadian biologists 21st-century Canadian biologists Theoretical biologists People from Almaty Voronezh State University alumni