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Ivan Schmalhausen

Ivan Schmalhausen
Born Иван Иванович Шмальгаузен
April 23, 1884
Kiev, Russian Empire
Died October 7, 1963 (1963-10-08) (aged 79)
Leningrad, Soviet Union
Citizenship Russian Empire Russian
Soviet Union Soviet
Alma mater Kiev University
Known for stabilizing selection, modern synthesis, books "Factors of Evolution: the Theory of Stabilizing Selection" (1946) and "The Organism as a Whole in its Individual and Historical Development" (1938)
Scientific career
Fields Zoologist, evolutionist
Institutions Institute of Zoology (Kiev),
Kiev University,
University of Tartu,
Moscow University,
Institute of Evolutionary Morphology (Moscow),
Zoological Institute (Leningrad)
Doctoral advisor Alexey Severtzov
Doctoral students Boris Balinsky

Ivan Ivanovich Schmalhausen (Russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Шмальга́узен; April 23, 1884 – October 7, 1963) was a Ukrainian-Russian and Soviet zoologist and evolutionary biologist. He developed the theory of stabilizing selection, and was one of the central figures in the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis.

He is remembered, among other things, for Schmalhausen's law, which states that a population at its limit of tolerance in one aspect is vulnerable to small differences in any other aspect.

Ivan Ivanovich Schmalhausen was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) on April 23, 1884 to Luise Schmalhausen (Luisa Ludwigovna Schmalhausen) and Johannes Theodor Schmalhausen (1849–1894). His father was one of the founding fathers of Russian paleobotany.

In 1901 Schmalhausen graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium () and enrolled at Kiev University, but was expelled a year later after taking a part in student disturbances. In 1902 he resumed his university studies at Kiev in the faculty of biological science. Around 1902 he became acquainted with the founder of the Russian school of evolutionary morphology, Alexey Severtsov () (1866–1936).

In 1904 Schmalhausen, under the guidance of Severtsov, completed his first scientific work on the embryonic development of lungs in the grass snake. He graduated from the university in 1909.

In 1910 Schmalhausen married Lydia Kozlova, a teacher of French from a small provincial Russian town.

In 1912 he became a professor of zoology in Kiev University. During 1920-1930 he was head of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology there. During 1930-1941 Schmalhausen was director of Institute of Zoology in Kiev, at the same during 1936-1948 he was director of Institute of Evolutionary Morphology in Moscow and during 1939-1948 - also a head to the Departament of Darwinism in Moscow University. The Institute of Zoology in Kiev was later named in his honour the I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology.


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