Araxie Tovmasovna Babayan (arm., Բաբայան Արաքսի Թովմասի, 5 May 1906, Yerevan – 13 February 1993, Yerevan) was a Soviet and Armenian

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

. Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Armenian SSR (1961) and Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Armenian SSR (1968).

Life and Work

Araxie Babayan was born on 5 May 1906 in Yerevan. As a student of

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; hy, Երևանի Պետական Համալսարան, ԵՊՀ, ''Yerevani Petakan Hamalsaran''), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919 ...

, Babayan worked in the chemical laboratory, performing demonstrative experiments of her teacher Stepan Gambaryan - founder of the school of organic chemistry in Armenia. She graduated the agricultural faculty of the Yerevan State University in 1928. Starting from 1928 until 1958 Babayan worked in Yerevan veterinarian institute, and from 1935 – in Chemical institute of Armenian branch of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. In 1937 Babayan graduated from the chemical Faculty of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. She defended her dissertation in 1937, and her doctoral dissertation in 1945. Babayan's main research was devoted to

amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituen ...

s and

quaternary ammonium In chemistry, quaternary ammonium cations, also known as quats, are positively charged polyatomic ions of the structure , R being an alkyl group or an aryl group. Unlike the ammonium ion () and the primary, secondary, or tertiary ammonium cations ...

compounds. She established a number of new laws in the chemistry of quaternary ammonium compounds. Babayan proposed a method for synthesizing acetylene glycols, known in the chemical literature as Favorskii-Babayan reactions. In 1949-1953 Babayan was a Deputy Director of Science of the Chemical Institute of the ArmFAN of the USSR. In 1953, she discovered the catalytic action of ammonium salts for the

alkylation Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting ...

reaction of organic acids. In 1955-1957 Babayan was a head of the organic chemistry sector and from 1957 to 1993 head of the laboratory of the amino compounds of Academy of Sciences of Armenian SSR. Since 1956, Babayan was a corresponding member, and since 1966 - an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. In 1961, Babayan was recognized as an Honored Scientist of the Armenian SSR. From 1976 to 1983, Babayan was a chief editor of ''Armenian Chemical Journal''. She was a deputy of the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet (russian: Верховный Совет, Verkhovny Sovet, Supreme Council) was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ...

of the II-IV convocations of the Armenian SSR. Araxie Babayan died on 13 February 1993 in Yerevan and is buried at Nubarashen cemetery.

Awards

* The Order of Friendship of Peoples * The Order of the Red Banner of Labor * The Order of the Badge of Honour

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babayan, Araxie 1906 births 1993 deaths Communist Party of the Soviet Union members National Polytechnic University of Armenia alumni Yerevan State University alumni Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour People from Yerevan Armenian chemists Soviet women chemists Soviet chemists Soviet Armenians