SPbU scientists received RAS’s personalized awards
The meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences has held an awarding ceremony to praise the outstanding scientists. Among them are SPbU biologists.
The Severtsov award was received by Doctor of Biology, Professor Andrei Ostrovskii for a series of his projects in Morpho-Functional Analysis of Key Innovations in Various Phylogenetic Lines as Bryozoa.
He has been primarily focused on various aspects of evolutionary and functional morphology and reproductive biology of the bryozoa that is a wide-spread group of aquatic invertebrate animals. For the first time in history, he, developing the A.N. Severtsov’s idea of the morphological regularities in evolution, has carried out a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary innovations on the paleontological and more recent material.
Primarily I was interested to reveal what role the independent origin of the special reproductive skeletal and tissue structures played in the evolutionary success of the pearlweeds.
SPbU Professor Andrei Ostrovskii
As a result, the scientist discovered various structures of the incubation chambers and identified the main stages and tendencies in evolution of various orders. The evolutionary success of the bryozo, as Professor revealed in his paleontological studies, is due to two factors: convergent origin and wide spread of the zooidal polymorphism: both reproductive and defensive. He also discovered the oldest defensive polymorphic zooids (avicularium) and restored a morphological series that show a shift from the least to the most modified polymorphs. It is the best example of the evolution of polymorphism in the colonial invertebrates in science.
The Golden Vavilov Medal was awarded to SPbU Professor, RAS Academician Sergei Inge-Vechtomov for a series of projects in Regulating gene activity and mutation process. He has been mostly focused on the analysis of the factors regulating translation in eukaryotes(gene identification that code termination factors in translations), protein inheritance in unicellular organisms, matrix of reproduction of the genetic material and realization of the genetic information, mutation process, and identification of the pre-mutation changes in genetic material.
The leading scientist of the school of genetics at St Petersburg University, that is among the Russia’s leading schools of genetics, has formulated a fundamental principle of the “ambiguity of the matrix processes”. “All matrix processes, both primary (replication, transcription, translation) and secondary (prion confrontational changes), may be associated with the errors and correcting the errors. This balance, which is being optimized in the evolution, defines the levels of the inherited and non-inherited changeability of every organism”, — said Professor Sergei Inge-Vechtomov.