Danylo Kirillovich Zabolotnyi is a microbiologist, epidemiologist, founder of the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology in Kyiv.
Place of Birth, Education
Zabolotny was born on December 16 (28 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1866 in the village of Chobotarka (now the village of Zabolotne) of the Podolsk province.
He came from a peasant family.
After the death of his father, the future microbiologist moved to Rostov-on-Don in 1877, where he studied at the Nakhichevan gymnasium.
In 1880, he settled in Odessa and continued his studies at the Richelieu Gymnasium.
Already in 1885, he began to study at the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University, but in 1889 he was expelled and arrested for participating in a student meeting.
In 1891, Zabolotny passed the exams for the degree of Master of Natural Sciences as an external student, after which he entered the 3rd year of the medical faculty of the Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr.
Career
From 1889 to 1891 he held the position of assistant director of the Odessa bacteriological station Yakov Bardakh. At the same time, he was also a member of the literary circle “Pleiada”.
After completing his studies at the Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr, he worked in Kamianets-Podilskyi.
In 1894-1895, Zabolotnyi took part in the fight against epidemics of cholera and diphtheria in the Podilsky province. After that, until 1897, he worked as a doctor and headed the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Kyiv District Military Hospital.
In 1897, together with the pathologist and bacteriologist Volodymyr Vysokovych, he studied the plague epidemic in India, and in 1898 he worked during the outbreak of pneumonic plague in Inner Mongolia. In the same year, at the invitation of the scientist Ilya Mechnikov, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
From 1898 to 1919, Zabolotny headed the Department of Medical Bacteriology of the St. Petersburg Women’s Medical Institute, where he created the first independent department of medical microbiology in the Russian Empire.
From 1919 to 1923 he was the rector of the Odessa Medical Institute. Also in 1920, he founded the world’s first department of epidemiology there.
In 1923, he moved to the system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1926 he became its full member.
In 1928 he moved to Kyiv. During 1928-1929 he served as president of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (WAN). He also founded the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, which later received his name.
Death/Fatalities
Zabolotny passed away on December 15, 1929.
Family life
He was married to Lyudmila Radetska.
