Ivan Puzanov

Born Apr. 13 (25), 1885, in Kursk; died Jan. 22, 1971, in Odessa. Soviet zoologist and zoo-geographer. Doctor of biological sciences (1938); Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR (1965).

Puzanov worked at Moscow University, from which he had graduated in 1911. In 1917 he went to work at the Sevastopol’ People’s University, and in 1922 he became a professor at the University of the Crimea (a pedagogical institute since 1925). From 1934 to 1947, Puzanov was a professor at the University of Gorky, and in 1947 he joined the faculty of the University of Odessa.

Puzanov’s principal works were devoted to the study of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and mollusks; zoogeography; the history of fauna formation (particularly in the Crimea); and the conservation of nature and natural resources.