Birshtein was born in Leningrad (now
Saint Petersburg) in 1928. She survived
Siege of Leningrad. She attended
Leningrad State University. Birshtein specialised in the theoretical physics of polymers in Saint Petersburg at the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the
Russian Academy of Sciences. This institution had been created as part of Professor
Mikhail Volkenstein's 1950s Leningrad school of polymer science. The institution was synonymous with Birshtein and she is said to have dedicated her life to science. DNA stability, micelle structure, as well as structures of organic molecules. On 22 February 2007, she was awarded $100,000, when she was given the
L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. The award was for her "contribution to the understanding of the shapes, sizes and motions of large molecules." Birshtein died on 23 February 2022, at the age of 93. == Awards ==