Alexander Oparin, Russian biochemist and academic (b. 1894)
Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (Russian: Александр Иванович Опарин; March 2 [O.S. February 18] 1894 – April 21, 1980) was a Soviet biochemist notable for his theories about the origin of life, and for his book The Origin of Life. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants and enzyme reactions in plant cells. He showed that many food production processes were based on biocatalysis and developed the foundations for industrial biochemistry in the USSR.