Mikhail Chumakov

Chumakov graduated in 1931 from Moscow State University Medical School that was later transformed into I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy. In 1937 Chumakov participated in a scientific expedition to Khabarovsk region of Soviet Far East that was led by Professor Lev A. Zilber. Together with his colleagues he discovered the etiology of a new transmissible neurological disease called tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and isolated the virus that causes it. He was accidentally infected with the virus and developed encephalitis that led to a permanent loss of hearing and paralysis of the right arm. For this discovery he was awarded Stalin Prize of First Degree in Science and Technology in 1941. In 1948 Chumakov became a corresponding member, and in 1960 a full member of Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Beginning in the 1940s Chumakov organized multiple medical expeditions to Siberia and other regions of the Soviet Union to investigate outbreaks caused by new viruses. Among viruses discovered and studied by Chumakov are Omsk hemorrhagic fever and Kemerovo fever viruses, hantavirus causing renal syndrome, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus, and many others. From 1950 he was the Director of the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology in Moscow.