Erna Daugaviete (March 1906 – 1991) was director of the pharmaceutical industry in Riga involved in the introduction of the production of antibiotics for the USSR.

Biography

Erna Ivanovna was born in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

in March 1906 . Her family were among those Latvians evacuated to the Far East during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The family later moved to the

Southern Urals Southern Ural - the south, the widest part of the Ural Mountains, stretches from the river Ufa (near the village of Lower Ufaley) to the Ural River. From the west and east the Southern Ural is limited to the East European, West Siberian Plain and ...

. Daugaviete completed her degree in the Gorky Ural State University in the Faculty of Chemistry, and went on to get a PhD in 1946. She went to work in a medical facility in Riga where the production of antibiotics was to be her main achievement. With her leadership the facility began producing antibiotics including ampicillin, griseofulvin, bicillin oleandomycin, eficillin, griseofulvin and oletetrin. Daugaviete began there as Chief Technologist in 1947 and worked up to being the director from 1962 to 1975. She was also a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR from 1951 to 1955 and a member of the

19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from 5 to 14 October 1952. It was the first party congress since before World War II and the last under Joseph Stalin's leadership. It was attended by many dignitaries fro ...

in 1952. In 1950 her portrait was completed by Aleksandr Laktionov. Daugaviete married and had two children, son Edward and daughter Natalya. She died in 1991.

Awards

*1950 Stalin Prize of the second degree, for the development and implementation in industry of a method for obtaining a medical product * 1960 State Prize of the Latvian SSR * Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Latvian SSR * Order of Lenin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daugaviete, Erna 1906 births 1991 deaths Soviet women chemists Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1951–1955