Beklemishev, Vladimir Nikolaevich

Born Sept. 22 (Oct. 4), 1890; died Sept. 4, 1962, in Moscow. Soviet zoologist, active member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1945) and the Polish Academy of Sciences (1949); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1947).

In 1913, Beklemishev graduated from St. Petersburg University. From 1918 he was a lecturer and from 1920, a professor at the University of Perm. In 1932 he became head of the entomological division of the Institute of Malaria, Medical Parasitology, and Helminthology in Moscow. In 1934 he became a professor in the biology department at Moscow State University.

Beklemishev was a great specialist on ciliary worms and the founder of a school of parasitologists and medical entomologists. He founded the study of malarial landscapes, which was the basis for the prediction of the rate of incidence of malaria and the working out of measures for its eradication in the USSR. His basic works were on the theoretical principles of the comparative anatomy of invertebrate animals, on ecology, biocenology, medical entomology, and comparative and evolutionary parasitology. Beklemishev received the State Prize of the USSR (1944 and 1952).