Клетка и жизнь - Коллектив авторов -- Биографии и мемуары

hotel in broken Russian for 10 days, when one morning she suddenly spoke perfect English to us.

She was of course a KGB agent posted to watch over us.

Yuri liked to arrange exciting trips for us when we visited Moscow.

The authorities had no idea that they were not always serious scientific expeditions.

Bershadsky took us to Leningrad 89.

To give you an idea of what cell biology involved in those days in Russia, Pinaev even made his own liquid nitrogen in 2 self made plants to freeze cells — but the authorities regularly stole it to rescue buildings from subsidence when the ice melted in spring.

And Yuri arranged the ultimate scientific meeting for us in 1992.

Rovensky took us to Tbilisi to meet a group of archeologists. I asked Yuri, «How can we discuss microtubules with archeologists?» He said, «Relax, Graham, its a holiday». He said, «Whatever you do, don’t say you like anything in Georgia — by their rule of hospitality they’re obliged to give it to you». I came back from Tbilisi clutching six bottles of their local firewater called Chercha having forgotten Vasiliev’s advice never to say that you like something of theirs to a Georgian.

Finally, this is Perhaps Yuri’s greatest achievement, as a teacher — especially of PhD students.

I sometimes think that these three friends, Vasiliev, Abercombie and Trinkaus were between them responsible for most of the world’s next generation of cell behaviourists.

Some of my fondest memories — Yuri Vasiliev

Peter HOLLENBECK. Professor of Biological Sciences Purdue University.

Some of my fondest memories of my life in science come from the month that I spent in Yuris lab way back in 1987. I was a postdoctoral fellow then with Dennis Bray in London and went to Moscow on a UK-USSR scientific exchange. I will always remember the kindness and understanding that Yuri and his group showed me, and the enormous intellectual and scientific stimulation of that time spent in his lab. In the subsequent years, it has been one of the great pleasures of my scientific and personal life to see so many of the once-young people who trained with Yuri spread across the world and succeed grandly in their own research programs.

I must tell just one personal Vasiliev story, one that I have told and re-told in the decades since then. One day he took me out of the lab to visit an institute for scientific cinematography in Moscow. It was in a very green, tree-lined neighborhood that we reached by Metro. As we walked up the street I commented to Yuri on how beautiful the trees were. He told me that when he was a young man, doing his «volunteer» work on weekends, the authorities wasted his brains and technical expertise by having him work on a crew planting trees along the streets of Moscow. In THIS part of Moscow, he said. Probably on THIS very street, he said. And back in that time he had grumbled about every minute that he had had to spend digging in the dirt and about every sapling that he had had to plant. But now, he said, he had to look around at these streets, lined with tall, beautiful trees — and admit that perhaps this was the most useful work of his career! A handsome and humorous admission by a great scientist.

I shall always remember Yuris many remarkable qualities as a scientist and human being. But most of all I will remember his warmth and kindness toward a visitor from the West in 1987.

Фотовкладка

1. В лаборатории. 1980-е гг.

2. Ю. М. на конференции, посвященной 100-летию Л. А. Зильбера. 1994 г.

3. На Втором съезде Биохимического общества. Москва, 1997 г.

4. Ю. М. на приеме Фонда Сороса в ЦДЛ. 1998 г.

5. Соросовская конференция. Вологда, 1997 г.

6. В. Гельфанд, Ю. М. и Лена в Перхушково. 1995 г.

7. Ю. М. с коллегами в Сан-Диего, 1995 г.

8. На юбилее Г. А. Абелева. 2003 г.

10. После доклада Ю. М. на Российском национальном конгрессе кардиологов. 2007 г.

11. Ю. М., И. Тинт и Э. Н. Мини-семинар у Т. Омельченко. Нью-Джерси, 2004 г.

12. Г. А. Белицкий с юбиляром. 85-летие Ю. М. 2013 г.

Часть IV

Он очеловечивал происходящее в клетке

Нам дана короткая жизнь, но память об отданной за благое дело жизни вечна.

Цицерон

Татьяна ОМЕЛЬЧЕНКО. Обучалась в аспирантуре Ратгерского университета под руководством Ю. М. Васильева и И. М. Гельфанда. Phd в области биологии. Старший научный сотрудник Мемориального онкологического центра Слоуна Кеттеринга, Нью-Йорк (США).