Popov, Aleksandr
Popov, Aleksandr Nikiforovich
Born circa 1840 in former Vitebsk Province; died Aug. 6 (18), 1881, in Warsaw. Russian organic chemist. A student of A.M. Butlerov, Popov graduated from the University in 1865. He experimentally proved that all four valence units of a carbon atom are identical. In studying the oxidation of organic compounds by a chromium mixture, he proposed methods of determining the chemical structure of ketones, acids, alcohols, and hydrocarbons (Popov’s rules).