Ushakov, Sergei

Born Sept. 4 (16), 1893, in Kostroma; died Sept. 16, 1964, in Leningrad. Soviet organic chemist and engineer. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Ushakov graduated in 1921 from the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. He worked at the Leningrad Institute of Technology, where in 1930 he became a professor. Maintaining his position at the institute, Ushakov worked from 1931 to 1941 at the Scientific Research Institute of Plastics, serving as director from 1931 to 1938. In 1945 he became director of the Scientific Research Institute of Polymer Plastics, and from 1948 to 1953 he served as director of the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Ushakov’s research dealt mainly with the condensation of phenols with aldehydes, the synthesis and characteristics of polymers of vinyl compounds and cellulose ethers, the polymerization and copolymerization of unsaturated compounds, and the preparation of polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl acetyl.

Ushakov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1942, 1950), two Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and medals.