Yuli Berkovich
Yuli Berkovich (1944 - 2012) was a scientist who has performed experiments with seed germination in zero gravity, among others, upon the International Space Station. The seedlings germinated, but died a few days later due to not having any soil or nutrients, and capillary action.
Yuli AlexandrovichBerkovich was named after his father' hero Julius (Yuli) Cesar. The boy indeed exhibited multiple trades of genius, brilliant sportsmanship, and hefty leadership from a young age. While in college at the Moscow Institute of Avionics and Cybernetic, he joined the mountaineering club to which he belonged for the rest of his life, eventually rising to its coach and mentor. He became the “snow leopard” of the Soviet Union (a title that meant that its holder has surmounted all the Earth peaks of 8000-meters in height without the use of oxygen or Sherpas, purely on his own). His personal best as traversing four (4) such peaks consequently.He also was very popular with women, having earned a reputation of a playboy among his colleagues and comrades. It was not uncommon for him to have a wife and 3 or 4 girlfriends at the same time. He was married six (6) times with multiple children fathered both from his official and unofficial escapades. In his scientific work,upon receiving his PhD in “technical management systems” from the Moscow University in 1973, he invented and developed the famed microgravity portable green house which provided the Soviet and later Russian cosmonauts with greenery at the Russian (later International) Space Station for decades. He was trained and prepared as a cosmonaut himself but scandalously removed from the Program for seducing the daughter of the Program's Director. It didn't help either that he was a Jew and not a Communist Party Member at the time.