Preface
December 21, 2001 is 100th anniversary of the birth of the late
Academician Sergei Evgenievich Severin, outstanding Russian biochemist,
brilliant teacher, and extraordinary organizer of national science.
Professor Severin was Editor-in-Chief of this journal from 1967 to
1991. Those who were privileged to work as the Editorial Board members
under his leadership remember the unique democratic and friendly
atmosphere he created in our journal and his high scientific standards
in evaluation of submitted manuscripts. He always combined his wisdom
and uncompromising evaluation of science with rare humility. During his
long life, he had many academic and administrative duties. He was a
full member (Academician) of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of
Medical Sciences of the USSR, foreign member of the Polish Academy of
Sciences and the Leopoldina German Academy of Natural Sciences. He was
President of the All-Union Biochemical Society and Chairman of the
Scientific Council of the Academy of Sciences “Animal and Human
Biochemistry”. For twelve years Prof. Severin was the
Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Voprosy Meditsinskoi Khimii”.
He was a member of editorial boards of several national and
international biochemical journals. His remarkable contribution to
development of national biochemistry was honored by many awards. He was
a Hero of Socialist Labor and a Lenin Prize Winner. Perhaps the major
contribution of his life was organization and half a century leadership
of the Department of Biochemistry at the School of Biology of Moscow
State University. Being a bright lecturer, he inspired many talented
students to become biochemists. Many of his pupils are now the leaders
of independent scientific schools, members of academies, and directors
of laboratories and institutes. This is why most of the papers in this
issue are written by his students, many of whom are still working at
the Department of Biochemistry. The contents of these papers
demonstrate the widest research interests of our teacher, and it would
not be an exaggeration to say that Prof. Severin is an invisible
coauthor of all of them.
As the President of the All-Union Biochemical Society, Prof. Severin was
greatly aware of the importance of international cooperation in
science. He established many formal and informal contacts between
Russian and foreign biochemists and scientific organizations. Many
biochemists over the world knew him personally. We are grateful to his
friends who have kindly accepted the invitation to submit a paper to
this issue dedicated to the memory of this outstanding Russian
scientist and great man.
Professor A. D. Vinogradov,
Head of the Department of Biochemistry,
School of Biology, Moscow State University
