Maria Prokhorova

Maria Illarionovna Prokhorova was a Russian scientist and biologist
She was the Head of Molotov University, the Dean of Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies at Leningrad State University; also she was the Head of A.A. Ukhtomsky Physiology Institute, a member of International Society for Neurochemistry, Doctor of Biology, and professor.
Prokhorova took part in the Great Patriotic War as a researcher on gas gangrene and its methods of treatment.

Early life and education

Prokhorova was born 20 July 1903 in Levoschkino Village, Pskov Oblast in the Russian Empire.
In 1924, she graduated from the biological department of the Physics and Mathematics faculty of Leningrad State University. In 1934 she completed a postgraduate course of Leningrad State University.

Career

In the early 30s, she worked for some time at the Devyatinskaya school of the Vytegorsky county of the Lodeynopolsky district of the Leningrad region, doing extracurricular work.
From 1935 to 1937, she worked as deputy dean of the Faculty of Biology, was a senior researcher at the Physiological Institute and an assistant, and then associate professor of the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Biology of Leningrad University.
In 1930, she became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
From October 2, 1937, to June 12, 1940, she was rector of Molotov University.
Prokhorova participated in the All-Union Congresses of Physiologists and Biochemists in 1934 and 1937. In 1935 she was a delegate and speaker at the XV International Physiological Congress.
From 1940 to 1941, she worked as an associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Leningrad University. The following year, she served as head of the Department of Biochemistry at Leningrad University in Saratov.
During the World War II, Prokhorova headed the implementation of a special topic on the study of gas gangrene in order to develop ways of its therapy at Leningrad State University. During the siege of Leningrad, she was a member of the air defense group of Leningrad State University. She also conducted scientific and practical work on the basis of a neurosurgical hospital in Saratov.
In 1952, Prokhorova became a professor of the Department of Biochemistry. From 1955 to 1958, she was Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies of Leningrad State University and Director of the University of Physiology named after Aleksey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky.

Scientific achievements

In 1961 Prokhorova initiated a special laboratory of biochemistry of the nervous system which was organized at Leningrad University.
She was the first scientist in Russia to use radioactive carbon in animal experiments, offering methods for determining "labeled" compounds in animal tissues. Her methodological approaches allowed us to obtain new fundamental data that changed the existing provisions on carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism of the brain.
The methodological approaches developed by her allowed us to obtain new fundamental data that changed the existing provisions on carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism of the brain and subsequently resulted in the creation of the School of neurochemists of Leningrad University. These works were highly appreciated by foreign scientists, and this was confirmed by her election as a member of the International Neurochemical Society.
Prokhorova trained more than 40 candidates of Science and 6 doctors of Science in biology.