August 6 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Georgy Aleksandrovich Viktorov (1925–1974), one of the most outstanding entomologists, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and head of the laboratory at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences).
From 1943 to 1946, Georgy Aleksandrovich served in the Soviet Army, first on the Central Front, then on the 2nd Far Eastern Front. His time in the army during the war years left a deep imprint on his character and worldview, and taught him to love people and life in all its manifestations.
Georgy Aleksandrovich made a great contribution to agricultural entomology by analyzing the factors that determine the dynamics of insect pests and developing biological methods for controlling the population of such insects. As a taxonomist, he studied true wasps (family Ichneumonidae) — an exceptionally species-rich and extremely difficult to identify group.
At the Department of Entomology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Georgy Aleksandrovich taught courses in agricultural entomology and entomophage ecology. Shortly before his death, he became the editor-in-chief of the Zoological Journal. Unfortunately, he died before he even reached 50 years of age, but he managed to do a lot and left a good memory of himself.
You can read more about the life of Georgy Aleksandrovich on our website: https://sev-in.ru/viktorov-georgiy-aleksandrovich
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