Yuri Ovchinnikov

Yuri Anatolyevich Ovchinnikov was a Soviet chemist who contributed to bioorganic chemistry and biochemistry. He was elected in 1970 as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and subsequently became the youngest vice president of the academy in its history (1974-1988). He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1977. He was also president of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (1984-1986), Director of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Moscow (1970-1988) and professor at Moscow State University. From 1972 through to 1984 he served concomitantly as head of the Laboratory of Protein Chemistry at the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of Protein.