Parnas was born in 1884 in
Tarnopol, at that time part of
Austria-Hungary, in the province of
Galicia (now split between Poland and Ukraine), to Jewish parents. He graduated from the
Königlich Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in 1904. From 1920 to 1941, he was head of the Institute of the Medical Chemistry at
Lviv University. He traveled across Europe, collaborating with universities in
Cambridge,
Naples,
Strasbourg,
Ghent and
Zürich. He was a member of the
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina,
Corresponding Member of the
Polish Academy of Sciences, as well an honorary doctor of
Sorbonne University and the
University of Athens. After the
Soviet invasion of Poland and annexation of
Western Ukraine in 1939 by the
Soviet Union, Parnas remained in
Lviv to continue his work in the institute. He also started collaborating with the Soviet authorities by taking on a political role in the communist District
Soviet Worker's Delegation. In 1941, after the
German invasion of the Soviet Union, Parnas was evacuated deeper into the USSR and remained there for the rest of his life. Only a few days after his departure,
Lviv (Lwów) was occupied by the
Nazi Germany army, who
massacred approximately 45 Lwów professors. Parnas was a member of the
Union of Polish Patriots. In the Soviet Union, Parnas met
Joseph Stalin, and received his own laboratory. He became an
Academician of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and a founding member of the
USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Despite his achievements and popularity, Parnas was falsely accused of being a spy of the
West and arrested by the
KGB on January 28, 1949. According to KGB's archives, he died during his first interrogation at
Lubyanka prison "from a
heart attack" on January 29, 1949. ==Achievements==