Boris Konstantinovich Schischkin (born 1886 in

Kukarka Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск), formerly Kukarka (russian: Кука́рка; chm, Кукарка), is a town and the administrative center of Sovetsky District in Kirov Oblast, Russia. Population: Etymology The origins of the name "Kuk ...

; died 21 March 1963 in Leningrad) was a Russian botanist and from 1943 corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His name was russian: Борис Константинович Шишкин, with his surname sometimes transliterated as Shishkin.

Life and Works

In 1911 Schischkin graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of

Tomsk State University The National Research Tomsk State University, TSU (russian: Национа́льный иссле́довательский То́мский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a public research university located in Tom ...

and from 1913 to 1915 he taught there. Between 1915 and 1918 he worked as a military medical officer. From 1918 to 1925 he headed the botanical section of the Caucasian Museum in Tbilisi. From 1925 to 1930 he was professor at the Tomsk State University, where he held a chair of morphology and plant systematics. From 1930 he worked in the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (from 1938 to 1949 as director) and from 1945 to 1958 also as professor at Leningrad University. From 1946 to 1963 he was vice-president of the Botanical Society of the USSR. Shishkin's

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

included more than thirty thousand samples, the majority of which are held in Tomsk. His main work was concerned with the classification of flowering plants (especially from the families Caryophyllaceae,

Umbelliferae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

and Compositae) and plant geography (Siberia, Transcaucasia). He was the organizer and editor of numerous joint works, including ''The Flora of the USSR'' ( ru , Флора СССР), ''The Flora of the Byelorussian SSR'' ( ru , Флора БССР ), ''the Flora of the Leningrad Oblast ('' ru , Флора Ленинградской области) and ''the Flora of Turkmenistan'' ( ru , Флора Туркмении). He was a regional adviser for the Soviet Union on the Flora Europaea project. Another significant works of the 1900s was 'Flora Rossiae Austro-orientalis' (1927-1936, index in 1938) by Boris Fedtschenko and Schischkin.David G. Frodin

Honours

Shishkin was awarded the USSR State Prize (1952), the Order of Lenin and other medals. He was an honorary member of the

Société Botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

and

Botanical Society of Washington Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. The plant genera ''

Schischkinia ''Schischkinia'' is a genus of Asian flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. ;Species There is only one known species, ''Schischkinia albispina'', native to Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, and Iran ...

'' Iljin (Compositae) and ''Schischkinella'' Steenis (

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''

Gastrocalyx ''Silene'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Containing nearly 900 species, it is the largest genus in the family. Common names include campion and catchfly. Many ''Silene'' species are widely distributed, particularl ...

''; Caryophyllaceae) were named in his honour. Additionally, a number of species use ''schischkinii'' as specific epithet.

References

External links

*
Biography in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
(in Russian)
Great Soviet Encyclopedia article translated into Englishshort biography (in Russian) and photo
on the page of the Томская областная универсальная научная библиотека имени А.С. Пушкина {{DEFAULTSORT:Schischkin, Boris Konstantinovich Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of Lenin Soviet botanists 1886 births 1963 deaths Tomsk State University alumni Academic staff of Tomsk State University Burials at Serafimovskoe Cemetery