Lev Semenovich Tsenkovskii

Born Oct. 1 (13), 1822, in Warsaw; died Sept. 25 (Oct. 7), 1887, in Leipzig. Russian botanist, protozoologist, and bacteriologist. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1881). Of Polish descent.

Tsenkovskii graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1844. He was a professor at the Demidov Lycée in Yaroslavl from 1850 to 1854, the University of St. Petersburg from 1854 to 1859, Novorossiia University in Odessa from 1865 to 1871, and the University of Kharkov from 1872 to 1887. Tsenkovskii was one of the founders of the ontogenetic method of studying lower plants and lower animals, and he developed the concept of the genetic unity of the plant and animal worlds. He disseminated the teachings of C. Darwin. Tsenkovskii proposed methods for producing an effective anthrax vaccine and promoted the organization of an antirabic unit in Kharkov in 1887. He was the founder of a school of microbiologists.