Sisakian, Norair Martirosovich

Born Jan. 12 (25), 1907, in the city of Ashtarak, Armenian SSR; died Mar. 12, 1966, in Moscow. Soviet biochemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960; corresponding member, 1953) and academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR (1965; corresponding member, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1937.

Sisakian graduated from the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy in 1932. In 1935 he began working at the A. N. Bakh Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, at the same time holding a professorship at Moscow State University. In the years 1959-63, Sisakian was academician-secretary of the section of biological sciences of the Academy of the Sciences of the USSR. In 1960 he became a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1963, the presidium’s chief scientific secretary. Beginning in 1965, Sisakian was vice-president of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Sisakian’s research dealt mainly with industrial biochemistry, space biology, the laws governing enzyme activity during metabolic processes, and the biochemistry of drought resistance in plants. A lunar crater has been named in his honor.

Sisakian was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1952), the A. N. Bakh Prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1950, 1966), and the academy’s E. Mechnikoff Prize (1951). In addition, he received four orders and several medals.