Zhebrak, Anton Romanovich

Born Dec. 14 (27), 1901, in the village of Zbliany, Grodno Province; died May 20, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet geneticist and plant breeder. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1940). Member of the CPSU from 1918.

Zhebrak graduated from the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy (TSKhA) in 1925 and the Institute of the Red Professoriat in 1929. In 1930–31 he specialized in genetics at Columbia University (USA) and in T. H. Morgan’s laboratory. He was docent (1932–35) and then professor and head of the genetics subdepartment of the TSKhA (1935–48). He was president of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR from 1945 to 1948. He was a professor at the Moscow Forestry Institute (1948–49) and the Moscow Pharmaceutical Institute (from 1949). His main works deal with hybridization, polyploidy, and breeding, chiefly of wheat and buckwheat. He produced the world’s first fertile hybrid forms by crossing many wheat species. In crossing wheat amphidiploids both with one another and with the parental forms, he analyzed the phylogeny of wheats and conducted long-term research on breeding wheats for high immunity to diseases and pests, high protein content, and large caryopsis and ear sizes. He was awarded three orders and various medals.