Viktor Mikhailovich Vdovenko

Born Jan. 5 (18), 1907, in Kiev. Soviet radiochemist, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958). Member of the Communist Party since 1928.

Vdovenko graduated from the Kiev Technological Institute (1930) and completed postgraduate work in 1935 at the Leningrad Physical Engineering Institute. He began teaching in 1935 at Leningrad State University. He became head of the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute in 1953 and was raised to the rank of professor in 1958. His major work has been in the fields of radiochemistry, inorganic chemistry, and physical chemistry: the distribution of radioactive elements in immiscible solvents, the determination of the solubility of compounds involving radioactive elements in nonaqueous solvents, studies of radium compounds, and the chemistry of transuranic elements. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin and five other orders, as well as medals.