Kretovich, Vatslav

Born Jan. 14 (27), 1907, in Yalta. Soviet biochemist; corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1962). Graduated from Moscow State University in 1931 and worked at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Grain from 1931 to 1941. Since 1938 he has worked at the A. N. Bakh Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he became head of the laboratory in 1944 and assistant director of the institute in 1966. He has been a professor at the Moscow Technological Institute of the Food Industry since 1946 and head of the department of biochemistry and grain science since 1953.

Kretovich established the primary role of glutamine in ammonia assimilation and the role of ammonia as a regulator of enzymatic synthesis and activity in plants. A number of his works are devoted to the enzymology of molecular nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter and rhizobia. He revealed the factors that determine the rate of respiration of grain, as well as the bio-chemical properties of inferior grain; this led to the development of technological methods for processing it. He proposed methods for improving the quality of bread by using enzyme preparations extracted from saprophytic fungi.

Kretovich holds an honorary doctorate from Humboldt University of Berlin. He has been awarded the A. N. Bakh Prize (1961), the State Prize of the USSR (1972), three orders, and medals.