31.08.2017 Petr Petrovich Gambaryan,
92, passed away Thursday, August 31, 2017
April 18, 1925 - August 31, 2017
A remarkable man and an outstanding scientist,
lead researcher at Zoological Institute RAS, PhD Biological Sciences,
Professor Petr Petrovich Gambaryan sadly passed away on August
31, 2017.
From his early years Petr Petrovich was very passionate about
zoology, which, in combination with his extraordinary energetic
personality, made him a good zoologist even at school.
Most of Peter Petrovich's life was intertwined with the Zoological
Institute, where he conducted his research for more than 50 years.
Since 1984, he served aswas the permanent head of the functional
morphology department at the Laboratory of Theriology. Petr Petrovich
has always been an inexhaustible generator of ideas, an indefatigable
field researcher and inspirer of youth. During his life he published
more than 120 scientific works. The monograph "Mammals Run" was
translated into English in 1976 and brought him fame in the West
long before the author himself was able to go abroad. His comparative
morpho-functional studies cover the widest spectrum of mammalian
forms and address a wide range of problems of their adaptive
evolution. However, he never changed the focus of his studies,
a subject to which his youthful interest had not dwindled until
the last days. This subject - the musculature of mammals - allowed
him to know the functions and realization of digging, running,
swimming ...
Petr Petrovich was always distinguished by innate nobility, spiritual
warmth and benevolence towards people around him. Unusual enthusiasm,
indomitable energy and temperament invariably attracted young
people to him. His numerous students, graduate students and trainees
among themselves call themselves "gambaryanoids”. His enthusiasm
was infectious even to those who barely knew him.
This year Peter Petrovich was in a hurry to finish his new book
on the burrowing activity of mammals, summing up almost eighty
years of work on the dissection of the most diverse representatives
of all groups of monotremes, marsupials and placentals. He hoped
that when he published this book, he would send a copy to his
colleagues in Australia, and duly impressed with this work, they
will send him new moles to dissect ...
