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Semen BreslerSoviet scientist-chemist, physical chemist, biologist
Date of Birth: 28.07.1911
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Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Early Scientific Career
- Scientific Work During World War II
- Scientific Activity in the Post-War Years
- Major Scientific Contributions
Early Life and Education
Semyon Yefimovich Bresler was born on July 28, 1911, in the town of Bereza (now Belarus) while his parents were visiting relatives. The family lived permanently in Saint Petersburg, where his father, Khaim-Yefim Davidovich Bresler, studied at the Mining Institute.
Bresler attended the renowned German school Petrischule, which became Labor School No. 41 after the revolution. Most subjects were taught in German at the time. Bresler graduated in 1926 and took entrance exams for both the Polytechnic and Medical Institutes. He passed both but chose physics and enrolled in the Physics and Mechanics Faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. He graduated in 1930 with a specialization in "Physics of Mechanical Processes."
Early Scientific Career
In 1930, after graduating from the Polytechnic Institute, Bresler was hired as a scientific researcher in the physicochemical department of the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (now the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute). He began research in the field of surface phenomena. The results of his work were published in the book "Surface Phenomena" (1934) by D.L. Talmud and S.E. Bresler.
In 1934, the molecular department of the LPTI became the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. Bresler was sent to the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute to master techniques for working with low temperatures.
In 1936, Bresler was awarded a Candidate of Science degree without defending a thesis. In 1939, he studied the physics of polymers, particularly the configurational statistics of polymer chains (in collaboration with Ya.I. Frenkel).
In 1940, he defended his doctoral dissertation, "Molecular Forces in Surface Layers," at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry. He then returned to the Physico-Technical Institute (LPTI) as head of the laboratory of physicochemical problems.
Scientific Work During World War II
During World War II, Bresler worked with evacuated LPTI researchers in Kazan on defense-related issues. In 1945, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for developing a method to produce a gas-impermeable polymer for special purposes.
After returning from Kazan in 1945, Bresler expanded his research on the structure of proteins. He traveled to Sweden, where he visited Svedberg's institute to acquire an ultracentrifuge invented by Svedberg. This instrument was the first of its kind in the USSR.
Scientific Activity in the Post-War Years
After 1945, Bresler taught at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute's Isotope Department while continuing his research at LPTI. Based on his lectures, he wrote the book "Radioactive Elements," which went through three editions and was translated into German and Czech.
In 1950, physicist Abram Federovich Ioffe was forced to resign from his position as director of LPTI as part of the "fight against cosmopolitanism." Bresler, who had defended Ioffe, was also forced to leave. His entire laboratory was transferred to the Institute of High-Molecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a research group (it became a laboratory again only in 1957).
Bresler was one of the first to propose studying polymerization and polycondensation mechanisms by analyzing molecular weight distributions. His work on polymers led him to the conclusion that the concepts of macromolecular compounds needed to be generalized. He began writing the book "Physics and Chemistry of Macromolecules," which he completed in 1965 with B.L. Erusalimsky.
With the beginning of the "Khrushchev Thaw," contacts between Soviet scientists and the international scientific community were restored. In 1957, at a conference in Prague, Bresler met Paul Doty, a professor at Harvard University who worked in molecular biology.
In 1958, Bresler was invited to give a presentation at a Faraday Society meeting. He traveled to the UK, where he met Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix. Inspired by this meeting, Bresler decided to focus on the "polymers of life"—nucleic acids and proteins.
In 1960, Bresler spent three months at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, learning experimental techniques for molecular biology. He brought these techniques to the USSR and trained others who would later work in the field. From 1960, his laboratory shifted its focus entirely to molecular biology. A scientific seminar on molecular biology was established.
Bresler trained his own students at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and established the Department of Biophysics there in 1976. Graduates of his department now work all over the world. Towards the end of his life, Bresler headed the Radiobiology Department at the Leningrad Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Bresler's work received international recognition. His articles and books continue to be cited by prominent researchers. He worked in the United States and France, and he had friendships with James Watson, François Jacob, Jacques Monod, Alexander Rich, Paul Doty, Heinz von Wichtracht, and many others. His laboratory on Vasilievsky Island became a destination for all the luminaries in the field visiting Leningrad.
Bresler worked at various institutions throughout his career, including the Physico-Technical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1930, 1940-1952, 1970-1971), the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1930-1934), the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (1934-1939), the Agrophysical Institute (1939-1940), the Institute of High-Molecular Compounds of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Leningrad Institute of Nuclear Physics. Concurrently, he taught at the Polytechnic Institute (Professor from 1946). In 1976, he founded the Department of Biophysics at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
Major Scientific Contributions
Bresler's main scientific research focused on the structure and mechanism of action of biopolymer macromolecules. He developed a statistical theory of chain molecules with limited flexibility in collaboration with Ya.I. Frenkel (1939). He was one of the first to propose studying polymerization and polycondensation mechanisms by analyzing molecular weight distributions. Using an EPR spectrometer with 100-fold increased concentration sensitivity, he measured fundamental quantities such as the absolute rate of chain growth and termination in radical polymerization.
Together with D.L. Talmud, he created a theory of the globular structure of proteins in 1945; its principles form the basis of modern understanding of the tertiary structure of proteins.
From 1960, Bresler studied the structure and function of nucleic acids and proteins, including the elementary processes of mutagenesis. He established that recombination during transformation occurs at the level of a single DNA strand and is accompanied by the formation and correction of molecular heteroduplexes, while recombination during conjugation occurs at the double-stranded level.
He developed a method of electron radiography. He proposed an original hypothesis explaining spontaneous mutations by thermal noise—random errors in DNA autorereplication.
Between 1950 and 1956, Bresler developed a theory of chromatography of multivalent ions on polymer sorbents. Based on this theory, he created and implemented in production (together with G.V. Samsonov) a new method for purifying streptomycin. He also developed and implemented sorption chromatography of viruses on wide-pore glasses, which enabled the production of an effective anti-influenza vaccine.
Semyon Yefimovich Bresler passed away suddenly in 1983 at the age of 72. He was buried in Leningrad.
