Background

Valentin Dogel was born on March 10, 1882 (O.S. February 26) in Kazan, Russian Empire. His father, A. S. Dogel, was first dissector in the department of histology in Kazan, and then professor in the departments of histology in Tomsk and in St. Petersburg.

Education

Dogel graduated in 1904 from the natural sciences section of the physics and mathematics faculty of St. Petersburg University.

Career

Dogel served as a professor of invertebrate zoology at the university from 1914 to 1955. He occupied the chair of zoology at the (Herzen) Pedagogical Institute for Women from 1908 to 1938, and from 1930 to 1955 was head of the laboratory of fish diseases in the All-Union Institute of Economy for Lake and River Fish and of the laboratory of sea protozoa of the Zoological Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Dogel’s scientific career was devoted to protozoology and the comparative anatomy of invertebrates.

In the area of protozoology he studied the morphology and taxonomy of Gregarina, Dinoflagellata, Catenata, Polymastigina, and Hypermastigina (from the intestines of termites) and Infusoria from the stomach of ruminants (Ophryoscolecidae); and he established the evolutionary regularity of the development of protozoa - the phenomenon of polymerization.

In ecological parasitology, Dogel studied the relation of the parasitofauna of the animal host to the type of diet and to migrations (among fish and migratory birds), and also to hibernation (among bats).

In the area of comparative anatomy and evolutionary morphology, in addition to establishing the taxonomic position of panlopods, Dogel formulated the general evolutionary regularities, in particular the regularity of oligomerization of homologous organs and the means by which it comes about (reduction, fusion of organs, change of function).

Dogel was the author of several monographs and textbooks and over 250 specialized works. Among his students were B. E. Bykhovsky, A. P. Markevich, A. V. Ivanov, E. M. Kheysin, Y. I. Polyansky, A. A. Strelkov, and V. L. Vagin.

Achievements

• Valentin Dogel is remembered for his significant contribution in the field of taxonomy of parasites and protozoa in general. His most famous work was the book Obshchaya protozoologiya (1951), also translated into English under the name General Protozoology in 1965. He was also the author of standard Soviet textbooks such as Invertebrate Zoology and Comparative anatomy of Invertebrates.
  
  For his scientific contribution Dogel received the Order of Lenin and the Lenin prize, and also the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945."

Works

More photos

• book

  • Scientific Results of the Zoological Expedition to British East Africa and Uganda Made by Prof. V. Dogiel and I. Sokolow in the Year 1914

Membership

Dogel was appointed a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1939, and a foreign member of the Linnean Society of London in 1944.

• 

  USSR Academy of Sciences , Russian Federation

  1939

• 

  Linnean Society of London , United Kingdom

  1944

Connections

Father:

Alexandr Dogel

Student:

Boris Bykhovsky

Student:

Alexandr Markevich

Student:

A. V. Ivanov

Student:

E. M. Kheysin

Student:

Yuriy Polyansky

Student:

Alexandr Strelkov

Student:

V. L. Vagin

References

• Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London