Nikolai Vavilov

Soviet plant geneticist who identified the geographic centers of origin of crop plants and assembled the world's first major seed bank.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Identified geographic 'centers of origin' where crop plants such as wheat were first domesticated.
• Built a Leningrad seed collection of roughly 250,000 samples, the world's largest of its era.
• Arrested for defending Mendelian genetics against Lysenkoism, he died of starvation in a Soviet prison in 1943.

Specifications & Metrics

• ERA: 1887-1943