Alphabetical list
A
- Johann Friedrich Adam, discoverer of the Adams mammoth, the first complete woolly mammoth skeleton
- Igor Akimushkin, biologist
- Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitskii, paleontologist
- Nicolai Andrusov, paleontologist
- Andrey Avinoff, entomologist
- Anatoly Andriyashev, ichthyologist, zoogeographist
B
- Karl Ernst von Baer, naturalist, founder of the Russian Entomological Society, formulated embryological Baer's laws
- Alexander Barchenko, notable for his research of Hyperborea
- Jacques von Bedriaga, prominent herpetologist, described Bedriaga's rock lizard and Bedriaga's skink
- Andrey Belozersky, founder of molecular biology
- Dmitry Belyayev, domesticated silver fox
- Lev Berg, ichthyologist of Central Asia and European Russia
- Yuli Berkovich, experimented with seed germination in zero gravity
- Nikolai Bernstein, neurophysiologist, coined the term biomechanics
- Vladimir Betz, discovered giant pyramidal neurons of primary motor cortex
- Anatoli Petrovich Bogdanov, biologist
- Andrey Bolotov, major 18th-century agriculturist, discovered dichogamy, pioneered cross-pollination
- August von Bongard, botanist of Alaska, discoverer of Sitka spruce and red alder
- Antonina Borissova, botanist
- Zinaida Botschantzeva, botanist
- Alexander Bunge, major botanist of Siberia (especially Altai)
- Alexey Bystrow, paleontologist
C
- Alexander Catsch, medical doctor and radiation biologist
- Mikhail Chailakhyan, researcher of flowering, described the florigen hormone
- Maria Cherkasova, ecologist
- Evgeny Chernikin, biologist
- Feodosy Chernyshov, paleontologist
- Sergei Chetverikov, pioneer of modern evolutionary synthesis
- Pyotr Chikhachyov, naturalist
- Alexander Chizhevsky, founder of heliobiology and modern air ionification
D
- Ilya Darevsky, biologist
- Nikolay Dubinin, studied the genetic basis of the human individuality in different populations; studied variability and heritability of neuro, and psychodynamic parameters
E
- Vladimir Efroimson, Soviet geneticist
- Kirill Eskov, biologist, discovered several new genera of spiders
- Eduard Eversmann, biologist and explorer, pioneer researcher of flora and fauna of southern Russia
F
- Andrey Famintsyn, plant physiologist, inventor of grow lamp, developer of symbiogenesis theory
- Mikhail A. Fedonkin, paleontologist
- Yuri Filipchenko, entomologist, coined the terms microevolution and macroevolution
G
- Oleg Gazenko, zoologist
- Johann Georg Gmelin, first researcher of Siberian flora
- Viktor Grebennikov, naturalist and entomologist, claimed to have built a levitation platform by attaching dead insect body parts to the underside
- Ilya Gruzinov, discovered the source for deep vocal sound is the membrane
- Grigory Grum-Grshimailo, zoologist and geographer, obtained two Przewalski's horses and more than 1000 bird specimens from his travels in Central Asia
- Alexander Gurwitsch, originated the morphogenetic field theory and discovered the biophoton
I
- Ilya Ivanov, researcher of artificial insemination and the interspecific hybridization of animals, involved in controversial attempts to create a human-ape hybrid
- Dmitry Ivanovsky, discoverer of viruses
J
- Hans Johansen, zoologist
- Hermann Johansen, zoologist
K
- Georgii Karpechenko, inventor of rabbage, an early experimental allopolyploid and non-sterile hybrid obtained through crossbreeding of distant species
- Karl Fedorovich Kessler, zoologist
- Alexander Keyserling, zoologist
- Nikolai Koltsov, discoverer of cytoskeleton
- Vladimir Komarov, plant geographer, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, founder of the Komarov Botanical Institute
- Aleksei Alekseevich Korotnev, zoologist
- Alexander Kovalevsky, embryologist, major researcher of gastrulation
- Vladimir Kovalevsky, studied the effect of meteorological, hydrological, and temperature factors on harvest
- Alexey Kondrashov, works on evolutionary genetics. Developed the deterministic mutation hypothesis explaining the maintenance of sexual reproduction, sympatric speciation, and evaluated mutation rates
- Boris Kozo-Polyansky, botanist, and evolutionary biologist. First to support the theory of symbiogenesis with Darwinian evolution, and first director of The B.M. Kozo-Polyansky Botanical Garden of Voronezh State University.
- August David Krohn, pioneer in marine biology and published essential works on Chaetognatha (arrow worms)
- Peter Kropotkin zoologist
- Ludmila Kuprianova, botanist
- Andrei Kursanov, major physiologist and biochemist
- Sergei Kurzanov, paleontologist
- Nikolai Jakovlevice Kusnezov, entomologist
L
- Alexander Lebedev, known for his work on the biochemical basis of behavior
- Olga Lepeshinskaya, advocate of spontaneous generation
- Ivan Lepyokhin, botanist
- Peter Lesgaft, founder of the modern system of physical education, one of the founders of theoretical anatomy
- Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky, botanist
- Dmitry Litvinov, botanist
- Trofim Lysenko, agronomist, developer of yarovization, infamous for lysenkoism
M
- Evgeny Maleev, discoverer of Talarurus, Tarbosaurus, and Therizinosaurus
- Karl Maximovich, pioneer researcher of the Far Eastern flora
- Ilya Mechnikov, pioneer researcher of immune system, probiotics and phagocytosis, coined the term gerontology, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner
- Zhores Medvedev, biologist
- Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, botanist
- Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, ethnologist
- Sergei Mirkin, DNA researcher
- Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov, entomologist
- Mikhail Menzbier, major ornithologist, discoverer of the Menzbier's marmot
- Konstantin Merezhkovsky, major lichenologist, developer of symbiogenesis theory, a founder of endosymbiosis theory
- Ivan Michurin, pomologist, selectionist and geneticist, practiced crossing of geographically distant plants, created hundreds of fruit cultivars
- Alexander Middendorf, zoologist and explorer, studied the influence of permafrost on living beings, coined the term "radula", horse breeder
- Victor Motschulsky, coleopterologist (researcher of beetles)
- Dmitrii Mushketov, paleontologist
N
- Sergei Navashin, discovered double fertilization
- Alexander Mikhailovich Nikolsky, zoologist
O
- Vladimir Obruchev, paleontologist
- Sergey Ognev, for his work on mammalogy
- Alexey Olovnikov, predicted existence of telomerase, suggested the telomere hypothesis of aging and the telomere relations to cancer
- Aleksandr Oparin, biologist and biochemist, proposed the "primordial soup" theory of life origin, showed that many food production processes are based on biocatalysis
- Yuri Ovchinnikov, proponent of using molecular biology and genetics for creating new types of biological weapons
P
- Heinz Christian Pander, embryologist, discoverer of germ layers
- Peter Simon Pallas, polymath naturalist and explorer, discoverer of multiple animals, including the Pallas's cat, Pallas's squirrel, and Pallas's gull
- Vladimir Pasechnik, biologist
- Ivan Pavlov, founder of modern physiology, the first to research classical conditioning, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner
- Alexander Petrunkevitch, eminent arachnologist of his time. Described over 130 spider species
- Nikolay Pirogov, founded field surgery. Was one of the first surgeons in Europe to use ether as an anaesthetic
- Vladimir Pravdich-Neminsky, published the first EEG and the evoked potential of the mammalian brain
- Yevgenia Georgievna Pobedimova, botanist and plant collector, notably in Russia, Ukraine and North Asia
- Maria Prokhorova, biologist and physiologist, did a research on gas gangrene during the Great Patriotic War
- Nikolai Przhevalsky, explorer and naturalist, brought vast collections from Central Asia, discovered the only extant species of wild horse
R
- Tikhon Rabotnov, made ground breaking studies in the regeneration of natural plant communities
- Leonty Ramensky, studied biotic communities
- Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn, paleontologist
- Anatoly Rozhdestvensky, discoverer of Aralosaurus and Probactrosaurus
- Vasiliy E. Ruzhentsev, paleontologist
S
- Ivan Schmalhausen, developer of modern evolutionary synthesis
- Leopold von Schrenck, ethnographer, zoologist, discovered the Amur sturgeon, Manchurian black water snake and Schrenck's bittern
- Boris Schwanwitsch, entomologist, applied colour patterns of insect wings to military camouflage during World War II
- Ivan Sechenov, founder of electrophysiology and neurophysiology
- Andrey Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, entomologist
- Aleksandr Grigorevich Sharov, paleontologist
- Vladimir Shevyakov, zoologist, protistologist
- Pyotr Shirshov, hydrobiologist, participant of many arctic expeditions including the first drifting ice station, North Pole-1, researched plankton in polar regions and proved there is life in high altitudes of the Arctic Ocean, founded and headed the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
- Victor Shmidt, zoologist, leading Russian specialist in microscopic anatomy and embryology
- Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shmuk, studied the biochemistry of tobacco
- Julian Simashko, zoologist
- Norair Sisakian, biochemist, one of the founders of space biology, pioneer in biochemistry of sub-cell structures and technical biochemistry
- Alexey Skvortsov, botanist
- Boris Sergeyevich Sokolov, paleontologist
- Alexander Spirin, made significant contributions to the biochemistry of nucleic acids, and protein biosynthesis
- Yaroslav Starobogatov, zoologist
- Georg Wilhelm Steller, naturalist, participant of Vitus Bering's voyages, discoverer of Steller's jay, Steller's eider, extinct Steller's sea cow and multiple other animals
- Lina Stern, pioneer researcher of blood–brain barrier and first female full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Vladimir Sukachev, geobotanist
T
- Armen Takhtajan, developer of Takhtajan system of flowering plant classification, major biogeographer
- Valery Taliev, the founder of concept of the role of man in the spreading of plants during Holocene, geobotanist
- Aleksandr Tikhomirov, zoologist
- Kliment Timiryazev, plant physiologist and evolutionist, major researcher of chlorophyll
- Nikolai Timofeeff-Ressovsky, major researcher of radiation genetics, population genetics, and microevolution
- Vladimir Andreevich Tranzschel, mycologist, expert on rust fungi
- Lev Tsenkovsky, pioneer researcher of the ontogenesis of lower plants and animals
- Mikhail Tsvet, inventor of chromatography
- Mikhail Voronin, major researcher of fungi and plant pathology
Vavilov
V
- Nikolai Vavilov, botanist and geneticist, gathered the world's largest collection of plant seeds, identified the centres of origin of main cultivated plants
- Vladimir Vernadsky, founded biogeochemistry, pioneered research into the noosphere
- Olga Vinogradova, accomplished neuroscientist
- Sergey Vinogradsky, microbiologist, ecologist, and soil scientist, pioneered the biogeochemical cycle concept, discovered lithotrophy and chemosynthesis, invented the Winogradsky column for breeding of microorganisms
- Roman Vishniac, biologist
W
- Sergei Winogradsky, microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who pioneered the cycle of life concept
Y
- Gennady Yakovlev, botanist
- Ivan Yefremov, paleontologist, sci-fi author, founded taphonomy
Z
- Sviatoslav Zabelin, biologist, awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize
- Sergey Zimov, creator of the Pleistocene Park
- Nikolai Zograf, zoologist
- Valeriy Zyuganov, formulated the concept of freshwater pearl mussel - Atlantic salmon symbiosis