
Count Apollos Apollosovich Musin-Pushkin (russian: Аполло́с Аполло́сович Му́син-Пу́шкин; February 17, 1760 – April 18, 1805) was a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe ...
and plant collector. He led a botanical expedition to the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
in 1802 with his friend botanist
Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein
Baron Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein (30 July 1768 in Stuttgart – 28 June 1826 in Merefa) was an early explorer of the flora and archeology of the southern portion of Imperial Russia, including the Caucasus and Novorossiya. He compi ...
.
In 1797, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Russian mining board and developed several new methods of
refining
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
Refining (also perhaps called by the mathematical term affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, b ...
and processing of
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
. The genus of
Puschkinia
''Puschkinia'' is a genus of four known species of bulbous perennials in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. It is native to the Caucasus and the Middle East. '' Puschkinia scilloides'' is grown as an ornamental bulbous plant.
Descri ...
commemorates his name.
References
1760 births
1805 deaths
Chemists from the Russian Empire
Russian nobility
18th-century botanists from the Russian Empire
Russian inventors
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the Royal Society
{{Russia-chemist-stub