Mikhail Ivanovich Konovalov

Born Nov. 1 (13), 1858, in the village of Budukhino, in what is now Rybinsk Raion, Yaroslavl Oblast; died Dec. 12 (25), 1906, in Kiev. Russian organic chemist.

A student of V. V. Markovnikov, Konovalov graduated from Moscow University in 1884. From 1896 to 1899 he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Agriculture. In 1899 he became a professor at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute; he was its director from 1902 to 1904.

Konovalov’s first works (master’s dissertation, Naphthenes, hexahydroxybenzenes, and their derivatives, 1889) were devoted to the study of the petroleum of the Caucasus and different naphthene derivatives. Konovalov discovered (1888) the nitrating effect of dilute nitric acid on saturated hydrocarbons upon heating (Konovalov reaction). He developed a method of preparing oximes, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones from nitrocom-pounds and used nitration to determine the structure of hydrocarbons. Konovalov was a popularizer of science and a staunch advocate of higher education for women.