Nikolay Zelinsky

Nikolay Dimitrievich Zelinsky (Никола́й Дми́триевич Зели́нский in Russian) (February 6 n.s., 1861, Tiraspol, the largest city of Transnistria - July 31, 1953, Moscow), Russian and Soviet chemist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of USSR (1929).

Zelinsky studied at the University of Odessa and at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen in Germany. Zelinsky was one of the founders of theory on organic catalysis. He is the inventor of the first effective filtering activated charcoal gas mask in the world (1915).^[1]

The crater Zelinskiy on the Moon is named in his honor.

In 2001, the Central Bank of Transnistria minted a silver coin honoring this native of today's Transnistria, as part of a series of memorable coins called The Outstanding People of Pridnestrovie.[1]

Life

Zelinsky studied at the University of Tiraspol, University of Odessa, and abroad at the University of Leipzig and University of Göttingen with Victor Meyer he received his master and his Ph.D from the University of Novorossisk in 1888 and 1891. He was appointed professor at the University of Moscow in 1893, where worked till his retirement with the exceptions of the years between 1911 and 1917. His main research area was the chemistry of cyclic hydrocarbons.

The Zelinskiy Institute of Organic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences is named after him.

See also

• Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky halogenation

References

• A. N. Nesmeyanov, A. V. Tophiev, B. A. Kazansky and N. I. Shuikin (1953). "To the memory of academician Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky". Russian Chemical Bulletin 2 (5): 683–690. doi:10.1007/BF01178843. 

• S. F. Birch; Delaby, R.; Birch, S. F. (1954). "Obituary notices: ... Nicholas Dimitrivich Zelinsky, 1861–1952". Journal of the Chemical Society 2 (5): 4059–4064. doi:10.1039/JR9540004059.