Yuri Dubrova (1955–2023)—a biologist from Ukraine heard by the world: notes on his biography

[Придатко-Долін, В. Юрій Дуброва (1955–2023) — біолог з України, якого чув світ: нотатки до біографії]

Vasyl Prydatko-Dolin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0128-4928

National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)

doi: https://doi.org/10.53452/gb2517

Cite as

Prydatko-Dolin, V. 2023. Yuri Dubrova (1955–2023)—a biologist from Ukraine heard by the world: notes on his biography.GEO&BIO, 25: 228-242. [In Ukrainian, with English summary]

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Abstract

The future famous geneticist Prof. Yuri Dubrova (1955–2023) was born in Kyiv (Ukraine), where he received excellent secondary and higher education and was awarded with a gold medal upon graduating from school. Eventually, he became one of the best graduates of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Faculty of Biology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. His interests included theoretical biology, evolutionary theory, genetics, biometrics, and bionics (for some time he studied the lateral lineage of cyprinid fishes). In his last years at the university, he focused on the study of spontaneous mutations. At the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Moscow, Y. Dubrova continued his post-graduate studies and successfully defended his PhD thesis. After the collapse of the USSR, he moved to the UK in search of better scientific and technical opportunities, where he became a professor at the University of Leicester. The scientist lived and worked in Leicester until the end of his life. He devoted himself fully to science, especially to radiation, medical and population genetics, and to teaching, and tried to participate in the study of highly complex medical and genetic issues related, in particular, to the consequences of man-made disasters—Chornobyl (Ukraine, Belarus), Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan)—and other cases of large-scale radiation effects on life. Dr. Dubrova is the author and co-author of more than 150 scientific articles published in leading journals, including the American Journal of Human Genetics, International Journal of Radiation Biology, Radiation Research, Molecular Biology and Evolution, International Journal of Cancer, British Journal of Cancer, Science, and Nature. He co-operated with many of the world’s leading geneticists and gave lectures in Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Canada, Japan, etc. The article uses fragments of the author’s long correspondence with Y. Dubrova, which may be of interest to biographers of F. Dobrzhansky, M. Tymofeiev-Resovsky, O. Sozinov, O. Yablokov, O. Kistiakowsky, as well as to students, teachers, and historians of Kyiv National University, Kaniv Nature Reserve, and the University of Leicester.

Key words: Yuri Dubrova, genetics, Kyiv National University, University of Leicester.

Correspondence to

Vasyl Prydatko-Dolin; National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, 13 Heroiv Oborony Street, Kyiv, 03041 Ukraine; Email: vasylprydatko@yahoo.com

Article info

Submitted: 25.03.2023. Revised: 28.06.2023. Accepted: 30.06.2023

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