Simon El'evich Shnol (russian: Симон Эльевич Шноль; 21 March 1930 – 11 September 2021) was a

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study Biology, biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from Molecule, molecular to organismic ...

, and a historian of

Soviet science Science and technology in the Soviet Union served as an important part of national politics, practices, and identity. From the time of Lenin until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, USSR in the early 1990s, both science and technology were int ...

. He was a professor at Physics Department of

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 ...

and a member of

Russian Academy of Natural Sciences The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Russian: Российская академия естественных наук) is a Russian non-governmental organization founded on August 31 1990 in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, following a dec ...

. His fields of interest were the oscillatory processes in biology, the theory of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

chronobiology Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines timing processes, including periodic (cyclic) phenomena in living organisms, such as their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobi ...

, and the history of science. He had mentored many successful scientists, including

Anatoly Zhabotinsky Anatol Markovich Zhabotinsky (Анато́лий Ма́ркович Жаботи́нский) (January 17, 1938 – September 16, 2008) was a Soviet biophysicist who created a theory of the chemical clock known as Belousov–Zhabotinsky reactio ...

Biography

Simon Shnoll was born in Moscow in 1930. His father was Eli Gershevich Shnol, a linguist and philosopher. His mother was Faina Yakovlevna Yudovich, a teacher of Russian language and literature. In 1946, he was enrolled to

(MSU). After graduation, he was engaged in developing new methods for using

radioactive isotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferr ...

s in medicine, in the Central Institute for Improvement of Medicine in Moscow, where he worked until 1959. In 1960 he went to work at MSU. Since 1975 he taught as a Professor of Biophysics. Since 1963, he was the head of Laboratory of Physical Biochemistry at the Institute of Biophysics in

Pushchino Pushchino ( rus, Пущино, p=ˈpuɕːɪnə) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, an important scientific center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Situated south of Moscow, and 13 km south-east of Serpukhov, on the right side of the Ok ...

. The first scientific papers were devoted to

ATPase ATPases (, Adenosine 5'-TriPhosphatase, adenylpyrophosphatase, ATP monophosphatase, triphosphatase, SV40 T-antigen, ATP hydrolase, complex V (mitochondrial electron transport), (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase, HCO3−-ATPase, adenosine triphosphatase) are ...

s and the use of radioactive isotopes in experimental and clinical studies. He was married and has a son,

Alexey Kondrashov Alexey Simonovich Kondrashov (russian: Алексе́й Си́монович Кондрашо́в) (born April 11, 1957) worked on a variety of subjects in evolutionary genetics. He is best known for the ''deterministic mutation hypothesis''Kondr ...

Research

From 1954 to 1957, Shnoll demonstrated a high probability of oscillatory modes in biochemical reactions. Study of chemical oscillating reactions conducted under his direction gained prominence to his graduate student

, who investigated in detail the reaction previously discovered by Boris Belousov. He later worked in the fields of

Chronobiology Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines timing processes, including periodic (cyclic) phenomena in living organisms, such as their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobi ...

and

Astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...

. He was the author of over 200 scientific papers. He was also author of the books "Physico-chemical factors of biological evolution" (1979) and "Heroes, villains, and conformists of Russian Science" (2001).WorldCat author page
/ref> He mentored 70 successful

PhD student A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

s. A minor planet « Shnollia» was named after him. During many years, Simon Shnoll was a jury chairman on Biology Olympiads conducted at

. He was a member of editorial board of Russian journal "Priroda" ("Nature").

Selected publications

*S. Shnoll Physico-chemical factors of biological evolution. - Moscow: Nauka, 1979. - 263. *S. Shnoll Cosmophysical factors in random processes . - Stockholm (Sweden): Svenska fysikarkivat, 2009. - 388. -

References

External links

Biography
(in Russian)
Biography of Zhabotinsky, in which Shnoll is mentioned
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shnoll, Simon Elevich 1930 births 2021 deaths Moscow State University alumni Scientists from Moscow Russian biophysicists Chronobiologists Academic staff of Moscow State University Soviet biophysicists Soviet Jews

Biography

Research

Selected publications

See also

References

External links