Nicholas Ivanovich Vavilov ( 1887 - 1943 )

Birth: 26 November 1887 Death: 26 January 1943 Profession: Plant geneticist Career: Worked with Bateson at John Innes Horticultural Institution (1913-1914); visited Persia and surrounding countries for work on cereals (1916); Professor of agriculture, botany and genetics, Saratov (1917); head of All Union Institute of Plant Industry; head of Bureau of Genetics, USSR Academy of Sciences; appointed by Lenin as President of Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Director of the Institute of Applied Botany; editor of 'Bulletin of applied botany, genetics and plant breeding'; his views on genetics and evolution were not popular in government circles; conflict with Lysenko (1939), lost his official posts; invited to be president of the International Congress of Genetics in 1939 but had to withdraw as the Russians decided to take no part in the Congress; arrested in 1940 as an alleged British spy and for following Huxley and sent to far north-east of Siberia where he died.