Kashchenko, Mykola

Kashchenko, Mykola [Кащенко, Микола; Kaščenko], b 7 May 1855 at Veselyi khutir, Oleksandrivske county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 29 March 1935 in Kyiv. Biologist, embryologist, and plant breeder; from 1919 full member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN). A graduate (1880) of Kharkiv University, he taught at Tomsk University (1895–1912) and then at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute. He directed the Acclimatization Garden in Kyiv (1914–35) and the zoological museum of the VUAN (1919–26), both of which he had organized. Kashchenko contributed to many areas of biology. His pioneering studies in pathological embryology included microscopic analysis of human embryonic terata. He wrote many taxonomic works on Siberian fauna and acclimatized many medicinal plants as well as industrial, decorative, and edible plants (pears, apricots, grapes) to Ukraine and Siberia. A biography of him by N. Konotopets was published in Kyiv in 1980.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]