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Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet (Михаил Семенович Цвет, 1872-1919) was the Russian botanist who invented adsorption chromatography. (His name is also spelt as "Tsvett" and "Tswett" and literally translated from Russian as "color".)
Mikhail Tsvet was born in Asti, Italy. His mother was Italian, and his father was Russian official. He received B.S. from Depatrment of Physics and Mathematics of Geneva University in 1893. However he decided to dedicate himself to botany and received Ph.D. in 1896 for his work on cell physiology. He came to Russia in 1896, because his father was recalled from the foreign service. His Geneva degrees were not recognized in Russia, and he proceeded to earn Russian degrees.
Chromatography
Mikhail Tsvet invented the chromatography in 1901 during his research of chlorophyll. He used liquid-adsorption columns to separate plant pigments. The method was described on December 30, 1901 at the XI Congress of Naturalists and Doctors (XI съезд естествоиспытателей и врачей) in St.Petersburg. The first printed description was in 1903, in the Proceedings of the Warsaw Society of Naturalists, section of biology. He first used the term "chromatography" in print in 1906 in his two papers about chlorophylle in the German botanical journal, Berichte der Deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft. In 1907 he demonstrated his chromatogaph for the German Botanical Society.
Because of the tragic events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, Tsvet's chromatography method went into an oblivion and was recollected 10 years after his death thanks to German scientist Edgar Lederer and Austrian biochemist Richard Kuhn.
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