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“Figure options Download full-size image Download as PowerPoint slide Professor Nina Chernova, the prominent Russian ecologist and soil scientist, passed away on August 9, 2010. A magnetic personality, creative researcher, brilliant teacher, the supervisor of numerous PhDs, the founder of Russian School of Collembology, Professor Chernova was one of the leaders of Russian soil zoology and ecology for the last decades. Her original way of thinking, her combination of clear and logical but imaginative expression of thoughts, and her unique sense of quiet

R428 humour created an aura around her, which attracted people – especially young researchers. Nina Chernova (maiden name Nina Barabanova) was born on May 16, 1935 in Volokolamsk (Moscow region), into the family of a school teacher. After the World War II (in which

she lost her father) the family moved to Kaliningrad (near Moscow). Life was difficult and her mother had to earn living while Nina, the eldest child, was responsible for looking after her small brother (a period he still recalls happily). Responsibility for her words and actions was a key feature of her character throughout her whole life. Childhood may also have been the time when she realized that learning and teaching would be her life’s path. BIRB 796 ic50 Nina finished school with the silver medal and entered the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (later University, MSPU) to study biology. At first, she was drawn to animal physiology. However, her acquaintance with Professor M.S. Ghilarov as well as her first field expedition to the Caucasus with a group of soil researchers directed by Professor M.A. Glazovskaya, led Nina to focus on soil animals instead. She was introduced to the world

of soil animals by Professor Mercury Ghilarov, the founder of soil zoology in Russia and an outstanding Montelukast Sodium biologist. His belief was that the experience of a soil biologist should start from a detailed knowledge of a particular group of soil organisms. He had this same expectation of his students, which strongly stimulated the progress of soil zoology in Russia between 1950 and 1970. Nina did her diploma work on the morphology and biology of wireworms, graduated from the University with the red (high-grade) diploma and then worked for several years at the Institute of Phytopathology. In 1957, Nina became Nina Chernova having married Jury Chernov, then also a young researcher and a future remarkable Russian ecologist and biogeographer. Hand in hand, they spent 53 years together creating a happy family with a son and two grandsons, helping, stimulating and mutually teaching one another. In her PhD thesis (1964), inspired by Prof. Ghilarov, Nina Chernova comparatively investigated the development of soil invertebrate communities in ageing composts of different types. She used animal community structure to indicate stages of compost ‘ripeness’ and its maximum effectiveness to be applied as organic manure.