Maisurian, Nikolai Aleksandrovich

Born Oct. 30 (Nov. 11), 1896, in Tbilisi; died there Nov. 22, 1967. Soviet horticulturist and plant breeder. Academician of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1958); corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR (1945). Became a member of the CPSU in 1953.

In 1922, Maisurian graduated from the Tbilisi State Polytechnic Institute. From 1932 to 1941 he was the head of a subdepartment at the All-Union Academy of Socialist Agriculture in Moscow. From 1941 he was a professor at the Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, becoming head of the subdepartment of horticulture in 1958 and serving as dean of the agronomy department from 1941 to 1961.

Maisurian’s principal works were on the taxonomy and biology of cereal and grain legume crops, the morphology of the seeds and fruits of weeds, and the grading of the seeds of cultivated plants. He developed a number of varieties of soybean, foxtail millet, barley, and alkaloid and nonalkaloid lupine. He worked out methods for the defoliation of grain legume crops. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.