Maria Illarionovna Prokhorova (, ; 20 July 1903 – 1993) was a Russian

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

and

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

She was the Head of Molotov University, the Dean of Faculty of

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 ...

and Soil Studies at

Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

; also she was the Head of A.A. Ukhtomsky

Physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

Institute, a member of

International Society for Neurochemistry The International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) is a professional society for neurochemists and neuroscientists throughout the world. History The idea of an organization like the ISN began in the mid-1950s as scientists began to devote more at ...

, Doctor of

, and professor. Prokhorova took part in the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

(WWII's Eastern Front) as a researcher on

gas gangrene Gas gangrene (also known as clostridial myonecrosis) is a bacterial infection that produces tissue gas in gangrene. This deadly form of gangrene usually is caused by '' Clostridium perfringens'' bacteria. About 1,000 cases of gas gangrene are r ...

and its methods of treatment.

Early life and education

Prokhorova was born 20 July 1903 in Levoschkino Village,

Pskov Oblast Pskov Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the west of the country. Its administrative center is the Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Pskov. As of the Russian Census ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In 1924, she graduated from the biological department of the Physics and Mathematics faculty of Leningrad State University. In 1934 she completed a postgraduate course of Leningrad State University.

Career

In the early 30s, she worked for some time at the Devyatinskaya school of the Vytegorsky county of the Lodeynopolsky district of the Leningrad region (now the Vytegorsky district of the Vologda region), doing extracurricular work (according to the testimony of Anastasia Nikitichna Shestopalova (Vershinina), supported by a photograph of Maria with a group of students of Devyatinskaya school). From 1935 to 1937, she worked as deputy dean of the Faculty of Biology, was a senior researcher at the Physiological Institute and an assistant, and then associate professor of the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Biology of Leningrad University. In 1930, she became a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU). From October 2, 1937, to June 12, 1940, she was rector of Molotov (Perm) University. Prokhorova participated in the All-Union Congresses of Physiologists and Biochemists in 1934 and 1937. In 1935 she was a delegate and speaker at the XV International Physiological Congress (Moscow, Leningrad). From 1940 to 1941, she worked as an associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Leningrad University. The following year, she served as head of the Department of Biochemistry at Leningrad University in Saratov. During the World War II, Prokhorova headed the implementation of a special topic on the study of gas gangrene in order to develop ways of its therapy at Leningrad State University. During the siege of Leningrad, she was a member of the air defense group of Leningrad State University. She also conducted scientific and practical work on the basis of a neurosurgical hospital in Saratov. In 1952, Prokhorova became a professor of the Department of Biochemistry. From 1955 to 1958, she was Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies of Leningrad State University and Director of the University of Physiology named after Aleksey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky.

Scientific achievements

In 1961 Prokhorova initiated a special laboratory of biochemistry of the nervous system which was organized at Leningrad University. She was the first scientist in Russia to use radioactive carbon in animal experiments, offering methods for determining "labeled" compounds in animal tissues. Her methodological approaches allowed us to obtain new fundamental data that changed the existing provisions on carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism of the brain. The methodological approaches developed by her allowed us to obtain new fundamental data that changed the existing provisions on carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism of the brain and subsequently resulted in the creation of the School of neurochemists of Leningrad University. These works were highly appreciated by foreign scientists, and this was confirmed by her election as a member of the International Neurochemical Society. Prokhorova trained more than 40 candidates of Science and 6 doctors of Science in biology.

Sources

Prokhorova M. I. On the assignment of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR
// Comp. A. S. Stabrovsky. - Perm: Publishing house of the Tomsk University. Perm Branch 1991. - pp. 59–64. * Kostitsyn V. I. Prokhorova Maria Illarionovna / / Rectors of the Perm University. 1916–2006. 2nd Ed., reprint. and add. / Perm University, Perm, 2006. - pp. 124–133

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prokhorova, Maria 1903 births 1993 deaths People from Gdovsky District People from Gdovsky Uyezd 20th-century Russian biologists 20th-century Russian women scientists Women biologists Saint Petersburg State University alumni Rectors of Perm State University Academic staff of Perm State University Recipients of the Order of Lenin