Boris Vainshtein

Born July 10, 1921, in Moscow. Soviet crystallographer and corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN SSSR, 1962). Member of the CPSU since 1957.

Vainshtein graduated from Moscow State University (1945) and the Institute of Steel (1947). From 1949 he worked in the Institute of Crystallography of the AN SSSR; from 1958 he was chief of laboratories, and from 1962 director of the institute. His basic works are in the field of structural analysis of crystals, the theory of the diffraction of electrons and roentgen rays, and research on the structure of albumen molecules. Vainshtein and Z. G. Pinsker and others created a method of structural electronography and worked out its theoretical foundations. He was the first to define the position of hydrogen atoms in a series of crystals and analyze the structures of many complex and organic compounds. Vainshtein was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.