Leo Surenovich Stepanyan (Лео Суренович Степанян) (19 March 1931 – 16 February 2002) was an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n ornithologist, best known as the author of the '' Conspectus of the ornithological fauna of the USSR'', a taxonomic work in Russian on birds of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Leo was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

on 19 March 1931, the son of Suren, a family physician, and Julia. In 1950 he graduated from Leo High School in Yessentuki and then moved to

Lomonosov Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, where he met G. P. Dementieev and other ornithologists. After his graduation in 1955 he spent two years at the Zoological Museum of the university (Zoological Museum of the Moscow State Lomonosov University – ZMMU), where he met ornithologists from all over the USSR who came to examine the collection. From 1957 he taught zoology and under the guidance of S. P. Naumov and A. V. Mikheev, he and some students made expeditions to the

Tien Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

, the

Pamirs The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...

, the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

and other regions to collect bird specimens. He published several papers on the results of these collection trips. In 1975 he was invited by the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals and became part of the scientific team that went on the research vessel "Callisto" to the islands of the southwest Pacific. He also made expeditions to Mongolia, Vietnam (eleven expeditions from 1978 to 1990) and North Korea. His major works included the ''Birds of Vietnam'' and the ''Conspectus of the ornithological fauna of the USSR'' (1990). He died on 16 February 2002.

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Vietnamese ornithology
1931 births 2002 deaths Scientists from Yerevan Armenian biologists Armenian ornithologists Russian biologists Moscow State University alumni 20th-century zoologists {{ornithologist-stub

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