Zenkevich, Lev Aleksandrovich

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ZENKEVICH, LEV ALEKSANDROVICH

ZENKEVICH, LEV ALEKSANDROVICH (1889–1970); Soviet researcher in the fields of hydrobiology and invertebrate zoology. Zenkevich was born in what became known as Leninsk, Velograd Province. From 1927 he worked at the Institute of Oceanography of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.; from 1930 he was a professor at Moscow University and a member of the Academy of Sciences. He studied the northern and eastern seas of the U.S.S.R., the Caspian Sea, and the Pacific Ocean from 1949 to 1952, heading scientific expeditions. From 1956 he was a member of the unesco committee on oceanic sciences and vice president of the special committee on oceanographic research of the International Council of Learned Societies. From 1961 to 1970 Zenkevich headed the oceanographic committee of the Academy of Sciences. He elaborated quantitative methods for studying ocean fauna and devised a theory of the biological structure of the ocean and the evolution of ocean fauna.

[The Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian, Jerusalem]

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