Aleksandr Formozov
{{Short description|Russian scientist (1899–1973)}}
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| birth_name = Aleksandr Nikolaevich Formozov
| birth_date = {{birth date |1899|02|13}}
| birth_place = Nizhny Novgorod
| death_date = {{death date and age |1973|12|22 |1899|02|13}}
| death_place = Moscow
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| citizenship = Russian Empire, USSR
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| alma_mater = Moscow State University
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Aleksandr Nikolaevich Formozov (1899–1973) was a Soviet biologist and environmentalist. He studied the biogeography and ecology of the steppe regions and is best known for his work on snow cover in ecology.
Biography
Alexander Formozov was born in Nizhny Novgorod to Nikolai Yelpidiforovich Formozov (1871–1928) and Elizabeth Fedorovna née Fedorova. His father worked in the local institutions, contributed to newspapers and was a keen hunter. Alexander's early studies were at the local Gymnasium after which he moved to study chemistry at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute. In 1919 he joined the Red Army and fought on the Southern Front. He later moved to study biology and then graduated in natural sciences from Moscow State University in 1925. He went on an expedition to Mongolia and the Far East organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences. He became an associate professor in 1929 at Leningrad and a full professor from 1935. He headed the Research Institute of Poultry and Poultry industry from 1931 and an institute for fur and hunting.
He worked on aspects of biogeography from 1962. From 1945 Formozov centred his research on the ecology of the steppes and deserts found in the Soviet Union.{{cite book|last1=Weiner|first1=Douglas R.|title=A little corner of freedom : Russian nature protection from Stalin to Gorbachev|date=2002|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, Calif.|isbn=9780520232136}} Formozov introduced numerous terms for snow drift phenomena that precisely identify habitats and associations.{{cite journal |author=Pruitt, W.O. Jr. |year=104 |title=Formozov-inspired concepts in snow ecology in North America |journal=Bulletin of Moscow Society of Naturalists. Biological Series |issue=5 |pages=13–22}}
He married twice, first to Lyubov Nikolaevna née Promptova (1903–1990) sister of the ornithologist Aleksandr Promptov. They had a son Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Formozov (1928–2009), who was a prominent archeologist. His second wife was Varvara Ivanovna Osmolovskaya (1916–1994) with whom he had two children.{{cite book|last1=Smirin|first1=Vladimir Moiseevich|last2=Smirin|first2=U︡riĭ Moiseevich|title=Animals in Nature|date=1999|publisher=Russian Nature Press|location=Edinburgh|isbn= |page=295}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://scfh.ru/en/papers/quot-on-a-bright-and-sunny-night-quot-on-the-life-of-two-women-zoologists-from-moscow-in-the-yamal-tundra-during-the-second-world-war/ An article on Formozov's second wife as an ornithology student]
- [https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/book-images/Open%20Access/9781772122411_WEB.pdf Snow cover as an integral factor of the environment and its importance in the ecology of mammals and birds (1946) by A.N. Formozov. Translated in 1964 by William Prychodko and William O. Pruitt, Jr. - University of Alberta]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Formozov, Aleksandr}}