Sergey Lebedev (chemist)

Lebedev was born on 13 July 1874, in Lublin, attended school in Warsaw. In 1900, he graduated from St. Petersburg University and found work at the Petersburg Margarine Factory. Starting in 1902, Lebedev moved from university to university in Russia, starting at the Saint-Petersburg Institute for Railroad Engineering. In 1904, he returned to St. Petersburg University to work under Alexey Favorsky (Stalin Prize, 1941, for contributions to the manufacture of synthetic rubber). In 1905, he married his second wife, the artist Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. In 1915, Lebedev was appointed Professor at the Women's Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg. After 1916, he was a Professor of the Saint Petersburg Academy for Military Medicine. In 1925, he became the leader of the Oil Laboratory (after 1928, the Laboratory of Synthetic Resins) at St. Petersburg University. He died in on 2 May 1934, aged 59, Leningrad, and is interred in Tikhvin Cemetery. == Works ==

Lebedev's main works are devoted to polymerisation of diene hydrocarbons. He was the first to research the polymerisation of butadiene (1910–1913). In 1910, Lebedev was the first to get synthetic rubber based on polybutadiene. His book Research in polymerisation of by-ethylene hydrocarbons (1913) became the bible for studies of synthetic rubber. Another important contribution of Lebedev's was the study of the kinetics of hydrogenation of ethylene hydrocarbons and the development of a number of synthetic motor oils for aircraft engines. == Honors ==

• In 1931, Lebedev was awarded the Order of Lenin for his work on synthetic rubber • In 1932, he became a full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. • In 1945 the National Institute for Synthetic Rubber was named "Lebedev's Institute". ==References==