Biography:Tatiana Birshtein

From HandWiki
Short description: Russian molecular scientist (1928–2022)
Tatiana Birshtein
Born20 December 1928 (1928-12-20)
Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR
Died23 February 2022 (2022-02-24) (aged 93)
Saint Petersburg, Russia
NationalityRussian

Tatiana Birshtein or Tat'yana Maksimovna Birshtein (Russian:Татья́на Макси́мовна Бирште́йн, 20 December 1928 – 23 February 2022) was a Russian molecular scientist. Birshtein specialised in the physics of polymers. In 2007 she was given the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.

Life and career

Birshtein was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1928. She survived Siege of Leningrad[1]. She attended Leningrad State University.[2]

Birshtein specialised in the theoretical physics of polymers in Saint Petersburg at the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This institution had been created as part of Professor Mikhail Volkenstein's 1950s Leningrad school of polymer science. The institution was synonymous with Birshtein and she is said to have dedicated her life to science.[2]

She has published extensively on polymers,[3] DNA stability,[4] micelle structure,[5] as well as structures of organic molecules.[6]

On 22 February 2007, she was awarded $100,000, when she was given the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. The award was for her "contribution to the understanding of the shapes, sizes and motions of large molecules."[7]

Birshtein died on 23 February 2022, at the age of 93.[8]

Awards

  • Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad" (1944)
  • Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation (1998)
  • Award named after V. A. Kargin RAS (2008)

References

  1. "Воспоминания Татьяны Максимовны Бирштейн о войне". https://macro.ru/2023/05/vospominaniya-tatyany-maksimovny-birshtejn-o-vojne/. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Tat'yana Maksimovna Birshtein, www.imc.macro.ru, Retrieved 16 November 2015
  3. Zhulina, E. B.; Borisov, O. V.; Pryamitsyn, V. A.; Birshtein, T. M. (1991). "Coil-globule type transitions in polymers. 1. Collapse of layers of grafted polymer chains". Macromolecules 24 (1): 140–149. doi:10.1021/ma00001a023. Bibcode1991MaMol..24..140Z. 
  4. Privalov, P. L.; Ptitsyn, O. B.; Birshtein, T. M. (1969). "Determination of stability of the DNA double helix in an aqueous medium". Biopolymers 8 (5): 559–571. doi:10.1002/bip.1969.360080502. 
  5. Birshtein, T.M.; Zhulina, E.B. (1989). "Scaling theory of supermolecular structures in block copolymer-solvent systems: 1. Model of micellar structures". Polymer 30: 170–177. doi:10.1016/0032-3861(89)90399-6. 
  6. Zubkov, V.A.; Birshtein, T.M.; Milevskaya, I.S. (1975). "The theoretical conformational analysis of some bridged aromatic compounds: Diphenyl ether, diphenylmethane, benzophenone and diphenyl sulphide". Journal of Molecular Structure 27 (1): 139–149. doi:10.1016/0022-2860(75)85131-3. Bibcode1975JMoSt..27..139Z. 
  7. "Five outstanding women scientists receive L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science 2007". UNESCOPRESS. 2007-03-02. Archived from the original on 2015-04-12. http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20150412060238/http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5212&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Retrieved 2015-11-16. 
  8. "Saying goodbye to Tat'yana Maksimovna Birshtein". https://macro.ru/2022/02/proshhaemsya-s-tatyanoj-maksimovnoj-birshtejn/.