Norair Martirosovich Sisakian (Sissakian) ( hy, Նորայր Մարտիրոսի Սիսակյան; russian: Норайр Мартиросович Сисакян, 12 January 1907 – 12 March 1966) was a

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

n biochemist, academic, one of the founders of

space biology 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 ...

,Норайр Сисакян
Peoples.ru (14 July 2014). Retrieved on 18 July 2014. an outstanding organizer of science, a member of the Pugwash movement. He was a Member of the Presidium of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR 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 ...

, a member of the

Armenian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...

, the Vice-President of the

International Academy of Astronautics The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is an independent non-governmental organization established in Stockholm (Sweden) on August 16, 1960, by Dr. Theodore von Kármán, and recognized by the United Nations in 1996. The IAA has electe ...

, the Chairman of the Committee on Bioastronautics of the International Astronautics Federation.

State Prize of the USSR The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

in 1952. In 1964 he was unanimously elected as a President of the 21st session of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

General Conference.

Biography

Sisakian finished the

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 ...

and then the Moscow Agricultural Academy in 1932. From 1935 he worked in the Moscow Institute of biochemics after A. N. Bach. Professor of the

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 ...

. During his life Sisakian created fourteen laboratories and the Puschin center of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...

. He is well known for his concept on

chloroplasts A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...

as poly-functional cell structures. He greatly contributed to the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

. A crater on the

Far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitu ...

was named in his honor. In 2001 the "Academician Norair Martirosovich Sissakian" book was released by the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n publishing house "Nauka". A school and a prospect 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 ...

are named after him. A museum of Sisakian was opened in his hometown

Ashtarak Ashtarak (Armenian: ), is a town and urban municipal community in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia, located on the left bank of Kasagh River along the gorge, northwest of the capital Yerevan. It is the administrative centre of the Aragatsotn pr ...

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 ' ...

. In 2007 Sisakian's name was added to the ''List of notable dates of UNESCO''. His son, Alexei Sisakian (1944–2010), was a well-known physicist, academic of the

and

, the Vice-president of "Dubna" International University, director of the

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research c ...

Dubna Dubna ( rus, Дубна́, p=dʊbˈna) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of ''naukograd'' (i.e. town of science), being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research center and one o ...

.СИСАКЯН АЛЕКСЕЙ НОРАЙРОВИЧ
Phys.uni-dubna.ru. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.

Books

*(in Russian) ''Norair Martirosovich Sisakian'', Moscow, 1967 (Series on Biochemics)

References

External links

Sissakian's biography
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sisakian, Norair 1907 births 1966 deaths People from Ashtarak Armenian academics Armenian biochemists Armenian chemists Armenian scientists Soviet biochemists Soviet biologists Soviet chemists 20th-century biologists 20th-century chemists Yerevan State University alumni Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Armenian people from the Russian Empire Soviet Armenians Soviet space program personnel Academic staff of Moscow State University