List of Russian scientists

Polymaths

• Karl Ernst von Baer, polymath naturalist, formulated the geological Baer's law on river erosion and embryological Baer's laws, founder of the Russian Entomological Society, co-founder of the Russian Geographical Society
• Alexander Borodin, chemist and composer, author of the famous opera Prince Igor, discovered Borodin reaction, co-discovered Aldol reaction
• Alexander Chizhevsky, interdisciplinary scientist, biophysicist, philosopher and artist, founder of heliobiology and modern air ionification, Russian cosmist
• Johann Gottlieb Georgi, naturalist, chemist, mineralogist, ethnographer and explorer, the first to describe omul fish of Baikal, published the first full-scale work on ethnography of indigenous peoples of Russia
• Mikhail Lomonosov, polymath scientist, artist and inventor; founder of the Moscow State University; proposed the law of conservation of matter; disproved the phlogiston theory; invented coaxial rotor and the first helicopter; invented the night vision telescope and off-axis reflecting telescope; discovered the atmosphere of Venus; suggested the organic origin of soil, peat, coal, petroleum and amber; pioneered the research of atmospheric electricity; coined the term physical chemistry; the first to record the freezing of mercury; co-developed Russian porcelain, re-discovered smalt and created a number of mosaics dedicated to Petrine era; author of an early account of Russian history and the first opponent of the Normanist theory; reformed Russian literary language by combining Old Church Slavonic with vernacular tongue in his early grammar; influenced Russian poetry through his odes
• Nikolay Lvov, polymath artist, geologist, philologist and ethnographer, compiled the first major collection of Russian folk songs, adapted rammed earth technology for northern climate and built the Priory Palace in Gatchina, pioneered HVAC technology, invented carton-pierre
• Alexander Middendorf, zoologist and explorer, discoverer of Putorana Plateau, founder of permafrost science, studied the influence of permafrost on living beings, coined the term radula, prominent hippologist and horse breeder
• Vladimir Obruchev, geologist, paleontologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia and Central Asia, author of the comprehensive Geology of Siberia and two popular science fiction novels, Plutonia and Sannikov Land
• Peter Simon Pallas, polymath naturalist, geographer, ethnographer, philologist, explorer of European Russia and Siberia, discoverer of the first pallasite meteorite and multiple animals, including the Pallas's cat, Pallas's squirrel, and Pallas's gull
• Yakov Perelman, a founder of popular science, author of many popular books, including the Physics Can Be Fun and Mathematics Can Be Fun
• Nicholas Roerich, artist, writer, philosopher, archeologist, explorer of Central Asia, public figure, initiator of the international Roerich's Pact on the defense of cultural objects, author of over 7000 paintings
• Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, geographer, geologist, entomologist, explorer of the Tian Shan Mountains, discoverer of the Peak Khan Tengri, for 40 years the head of the Russian Geographical Society, statistician, organiser of the first Russian Empire Census
• Vasily Tatishchev, statesman, economist, geographer, ethnographer, philologist and historian, supervisor of the first instrumental mapping of Russia, coloniser of the Urals and Siberia, founder of Perm and Yekaterinburg, discovered and published Russkaya Pravda, Sudebnik of 1550 and the controversial Ioachim Chronicle, wrote the first full-scale account of Russian history, compiled the first encyclopedic dictionary of Russian language
• Vladimir Vernadsky, philosopher and geologist, a founder of geochemistry, biogeochemistry and radiogeology, creator of noosphere theory, popularized the term biosphere, major Russian cosmist
• Ivan Yefremov, paleontologist, philosopher, sci-fi and historical novelist, founder of taphonomy, author of The Land of Foam , Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale and ''Thais of Athens''

  Earth scientists

• Dmitry Anuchin, anthropologist and geographer, coined the term anthroposphere, determined the location of the Volga river source
• Karl Baer, naturalist, formulated the geological Baer's law on river erosion, co-founder of the Russian Geographical Society
• Lev Berg, determined the depth of Central Asian lakes, including Balkhash and Issyk Kul, a head of the Soviet Geographical Society
• Leonid Brekhovskikh, founder of modern acoustical oceanography, discovered the deep sound channel, the first to observe mesoscale ocean eddies
• Ivan Chersky, paleontologist, geologist and explorer of Siberia, explained the origin of Lake Baikal, pioneered the geomorphological evolution theory
• Pyotr Chikhachyov, early geographer and geologist of Central Asia, discovered Kuznetsk Coal Basin
• Vasily Dokuchaev, founder of soil science, created the first soil classification, determined the five factors for soil formation
• Alexander Fersman, a founder of geochemistry, discovered copper in Monchegorsk, apatites in Khibiny, sulfur in Central Asia
• Boris Golitsyn, inventor of electromagnetic seismograph, the president of International Association of Seismology
• Grigory Gamburtsev, major Soviet seismologist, invented a number of seismological methods and devices
• Ivan Gubkin, founder of the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
• Alexander Karpinsky, geologist and mineralogist, the first President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
• Alexander Keyserling, naturalist, a founder of Russian geology
• Maria Klenova, a founder of marine geology, polar explorer
• Wladimir Köppen, meteorologist, author of the commonly used Köppen climate classification
• Stepan Krasheninnikov, geographer, the first Russian naturalist, made the first scientific description of Kamchatka
• Alexander Kruber, founder of Russian karstology
• Nikolai Kudryavtsev, author of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, coordinated oil and gas exploration in Siberia
• Leonid Kulik, meteorite researcher, the first to study the Tunguska event
• Mikhail Lomonosov, polymath, suggested the organic origin of soil, peat, coal, petroleum and amber; forerunner of the continental drift theory, pioneer researcher of atmospheric electricity
• Alexander Middendorf, zoologist and explorer, founder of permafrost science, determined the southern border of permafrost
• Pavel Molchanov, meteorologist, inventor of radiosonde
• Ivan Mushketov, made the first geological map of Turkestan
• Vladimir Obruchev, geologist and explorer, author of the comprehensive Geology of Siberia and two popular science fiction novels, Plutonia and Sannikov Land
• Mikhail Pomortsev, meteorologist, inventor of nephoscope
• Farman Salmanov, discoverer of giant oil fields in West Siberia
• Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, explorer of the Tian Shan Mountains, for 40 years the head of the Russian Geographical Society, prominent statistician and organiser of the first Russian Empire Census
• Nikolay Shatsky, made a comprehensive tectonic map of North Eurasia, introduced Riphean and Baikalian geological stages
• Pyotr Shirshov, polar explorer, founder of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, proved that there is life in high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean
• Yuly Shokalsky, the first head of the Soviet Geographical Society, coined the term World Ocean
• Elizabeth Soshkina, geologist, biologist, paleontologist
• Aleksey Tillo, made the first correct hypsometric map of European Russia, coined the term Central Russian Upland, measured the lengths of main Russian rivers
• Andrey Tikhonov, mathematician and inventor of magnetotellurics in geology
• Vladimir Vernadsky, philosopher and geologist, a founder of geochemistry, biogeochemistry and radiogeology, creator of noosphere theory, popularized the term biosphere
• Nadejda Voronets, Russian geologist and one of the first women paleontologists in Russia; specialist in Mesozoic mollusks of the North and Far East of the USSR.
• Irina Pavlovna Zarutskaya, Soviet geomorphologist, cartographer, editor-in-chief of the map production department during the creation of the 1:2,500,000 scale Hypsometric Map of the USSR

  Biologists and paleontologists

• Johann Friedrich Adam, discoverer of the Adams mammoth, the first complete woolly mammoth skeleton
• Karl Baer, naturalist, founder of the Russian Entomological Society, formulated embryological Baer's laws
• Jacques von Bedriaga, prominent herpetologist, described Bedriaga's rock lizard and Bedriaga's skink
• Dmitry Belyayev, domesticated silver fox
• Lev Berg, ichthyologist of Central Asia and European Russia
• Nikolai Bernstein, neurophysiologist, coined the term biomechanics
• Andrey Bolotov, major 18th-century agriculturist, discovered dichogamy, pioneered cross-pollination
• August von Bongard, botanist of Alaska, discoverer of Sitka spruce and red alder
• Alexander Bunge, major botanist of Siberia
• Mikhail Chailakhyan, researcher of flowering, described the florigen hormone
• Sergei Chetverikov, pioneer of modern evolutionary synthesis
• Alexander Chizhevsky, founder of heliobiology and modern air ionification
• Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermol'eva, biochemist, independently synthesized penicillin during World War II.
• Eduard Eversmann, biologist and explorer, pioneer researcher of flora and fauna of southern Russia
• Andrey Famintsyn, plant physiologist, inventor of grow lamp, developer of symbiogenesis theory
• Yuri Filipchenko, entomologist, coined the terms microevolution and macroevolution
• Nikolay Gamaleya, microbiologist and pioneer of Russian vaccine research
• Johann Georg Gmelin, first researcher of Siberian flora
• Grigory Grum-Grshimailo, zoologist and geographer, obtained two Przewalski's horses and more than 1000 bird specimens from his travels in Central Asia
• Alexander Gurwitsch, originated the morphogenetic field theory and discovered the biophoton
• Ilya Ivanov, researcher of artificial insemination and the interspecific hybridization of animals, involved in controversial attempts to create a human-ape hybrid
• Dmitry Ivanovsky, discoverer of viruses
• Georgii Karpechenko, inventor of rabbage
• Nikolai Koltsov, discoverer of cytoskeleton
• Vladimir Komarov, plant geographer, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, founder of the Komarov Botanical Institute
• Alexander Kovalevsky, embryologist, major researcher of gastrulation
• Boris Kozo-Polyansky, botanist, and evolutionary biologist. First to support the theory of symbiogenesis with Darwinian evolution, and first director of The B.M. Kozo-Polyansky Botanical Garden of Voronezh State University.
• Trofim Lysenko, agronomist, developer of yarovization, infamous for lysenkoism
• Evgeny Maleev, discoverer of Talarurus, Tarbosaurus, and Therizinosaurus
• Carl Maximowicz, pioneer researcher of the Far Eastern flora
• Ilya Mechnikov, pioneer researcher of immune system, probiotics and phagocytosis, coined the term gerontology, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner
• Mikhail Menzbier, major ornithologist, discoverer of the Menzbier's marmot
• Konstantin Merezhkovsky, major lichenologist, developer of symbiogenesis theory, a founder of endosymbiosis theory
• Ivan Michurin, pomologist, selectionist and geneticist, practiced crossing of geographically distant plants, created hundreds of fruit cultivars
• Alexander Middendorf, zoologist and explorer, studied the influence of permafrost on living beings, coined the term radula, prominent horse breeder
• Victor Motschulsky, prominent coleopterologist
• Sergei Navashin, discovered double fertilization
• Alexey Olovnikov, predicted existence of Telomerase, suggested the Telomere hypothesis of aging and the Telomere relations to cancer
• Aleksandr Oparin, biologist and biochemist, proposed the "primordial soup" theory of life origin, showed that many food production processes are based on biocatalysis
• Heinz Christian Pander, embryologist, discoverer of germ layers
• Peter Simon Pallas, polymath naturalist and explorer, discoverer of multiple animals, including the Pallas's cat, Pallas's squirrel, and Pallas's gull
• Ivan Pavlov, founder of modern physiology, the first to research classical conditioning, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner
• Vladimir Pravdich-Neminsky, published the first EEG and the evoked potential of the mammalian brain
• Nikolai Przhevalsky, explorer and naturalist, brought vast collections from Central Asia, discovered the only extant species of wild horse
• Anatoly Rozhdestvensky, discoverer of Aralosaurus and Probactrosaurus
• Ivan Schmalhausen, developer of modern evolutionary synthesis
• Leopold von Schrenck, ethnographer, zoologist, discovered the Amur sturgeon, Manchurian black water snake and Schrenck's bittern
• Boris Schwanwitsch, entomologist, applied colour patterns of insect wings to military camouflage during World War II
• Ivan Sechenov, founder of electrophysiology and neurophysiology
• Georg Wilhelm Steller, naturalist, participant of Vitus Bering's voyages, discoverer of Steller's jay, Steller's eider, extinct Steller's sea cow and multiple other animals
• Lina Stern, pioneer researcher of blood–brain barrier and first female full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Armen Takhtajan, developer of Takhtajan system of flowering plant classification, major biogeographer
• Kliment Timiryazev, plant physiologist and evolutionist, major researcher of chlorophyll
• Nikolai Timofeeff-Ressovsky, major researcher of radiation genetics, population genetics, and microevolution
• Lev Tsenkovsky, pioneer researcher of the ontogenesis of lower plants and animals
• Mikhail Tsvet, inventor of chromatography
• Nikolai Vavilov, botanist and geneticist, gathered the world's largest collection of plant seeds, identified the centres of origin of main cultivated plants
• Mikhail Voronin, major researcher of fungi and plant pathology
• Sergey Vinogradsky, microbiologist, ecologist, and soil scientist, pioneered the biogeochemical cycle concept, discovered lithotrophy and chemosynthesis, invented the Winogradsky column for breeding of microorganisms
• Ivan Yefremov, paleontologist, sci-fi author, founded taphonomy
• Sergey Zimov, creator of the Pleistocene Park