The 2015 National Award in Science and Technology is conferred to Erik Galimov for the launch of carbon isotope geochemical research, the diamond formation theory, and research in petroleum geology and biogeochemical processes.
Erik Galimov was born in Vladivostok on July 29, 1936. He is a Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Research Director of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Erik Galimov is among the world leaders of present-day carbon isotope research and the author of the first monograph that laid the foundation of this research area. He has made a significant contribution to research in a wide range of areas – petroleum geology, the oil and diamond formation theory, the origin of life, the evolution of biosphere, the distinction between biogenic and non-biogenic, and terrestrial and extra-terrestrial carbon forms.
In petroleum chemistry, he advanced a method of reliable estimation of hydrocarbon deposits and geological survey planning, and explained the origin of giant natural gas clusters in Western Siberia.
In natural diamond research, Mr Galimov elaborated and experimentally substantiated the concept of diamond and carbonic nano-structure formation through the cavitation of carbon-containing liquid (cavitation synthesis of diamonds is an entirely Russian technology from idea to practice).
He also advanced the physical-chemical mechanism of the origin of life on Earth, studied the isotope composition of lunar ground carbon, and advanced the hypothesis of the upper Earth crust accumulating protoplanetary substance of the carbonaceous chondrite type.
Mr Galimov took part in, and led oceanic expeditions and participated in an international deep-sea drilling project to study geochemical processes in the sedimentary oceanic shell.
He has headed the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry for more than 20 years, and compiled and edited Vladimir Vernadsky’s first 24-volume collected works. He is the editor-in-chief of the Geochemistry journal, and author of many books translated into English, Spanish and Chinese, and of several hundred academic articles. His election as president of the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry reflected the international recognition of his scientific achievements.
The 2015 National Award in Science and Technology is conferred to Sergei Lukyanov and Yevgeny Sverdlov for the development and implementation of a technological complex for the analysis of compound genome structure and functions.
Sergei Lukyanov was born in Moscow on September 13, 1963. He is a Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and director of the Translational Medicine Institute at the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University under the Healthcare Ministry of the Russian Federation.
Yevgeny Sverdlov was born in Dnepropetrovsk on November 16, 1938. He is a Member and Councillor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and works at its Institute of Molecular Genetics.
Lukyanov and Sverdlov are outstanding Russian biologists and authors of fundamental works on genome and post-genome technology.
The regulation of essential intracorporeal biological processes, such an embryonic development, tumoral transformation, and tissue and organ regeneration, is based on the activation or suppression of specific genes’ activity. The authors created and implemented a cluster of technologies that make it possible to discern essential genes and distinguish the subtlest differences in their activity with efficiency exceeding all analogous developments in this field.
The structural functional analysis of the differences discovered between normal and pathological tissue discloses the molecular mechanisms of many diseases, and offers new opportunities for research and development of diagnostic systems and medications.
The authors’ technological complex belongs to the world arsenal of live cellular process study methods. They accelerated the development of biological and biomedical research in Russia and the world, made it possible to identify several hundred essential genome functional entities, and opened new opportunities for experimental work.
Inventions based on Lukyanov and Sverdlov’s genome and post-genome technologies have been implemented in Russian and other laboratories and biotechnological companies. Over 25,000 publications on research in many fields of biology, medicine and agriculture cite their works.
The 2015 National Award in Science and Technology is conferred to Sergei Nedospasov for fundamental and applied works on molecular immunity mediators, including unprecedented biomedical models.
Sergei Nedospasov was born in Moscow on September 17, 1952. He is a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Mechanisms of Immunity, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
A world-renowned immunologist, Sergei Nedospasov has made a fundamental contribution to the development of molecular biomedicine. Based on an original multi-disciplinary approach, his research combines cellular biology, molecular immunology and immunochemistry.
He and his staff studied the properties of cytokines – essential regulators of the human and animal immune system – from the perspective of fundamental science and tentative use in medical practice. They created trailblazing models of human diseases to study on mice, including cancer, arthritis, psoriasis, insular sclerosis and many others, studied the pathogenic mechanism at the molecular level, and launched new approaches to biotherapy, including the prototyping of pioneering medications.
Unprecedented model organisms produced by Sergei Nedospasov’s directed genome editing facilitate biomedical research allowing the study of human immunity disorders and the elaboration of new therapeutic concepts.
He discovered hitherto unknown properties of certain cytokines whose functions lie partly outside the immune system. His research achievements improve the available biotherapeutic patterns for autoimmune diseases and show the prospects of and approaches to new bioengineering medicines.
Sergei Nedospasov organised training for young scientists at the Immunology Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University Biology Faculty and on the basis of the Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod.