Institute of Biology of Karelian Research Centre Russian Academy of Sciences was established on April 29, 1953 as a division of the Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The founder and first director of the Institute was the prominent protozoologist Yu.I. Polyansky, Corresponding Fellow of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Other biologists who contributed to the establishment of the Institute were N.I. Pjavchenko, I.F. Pravdin, A.S. Lutta, V.D. Lopatin, M.L. Ramenskaya, E.F. Vinnichenko, S.S. Shulman, R.E. Shulman, M.G. Zaks, E.A. Galkina, L.Ya. Lepin, Yu.M. Olenov. Crucial figures in the development and establishment of the institute were the President of the Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences Professor V.P. Dadykin, and directors of the institute Dr. I.A. Petrov (1956-1958), Dr. A.I. Korovin (1959-1961), and Professor S.N. Drozdov, who headed the institute from 1961 to 1996. Since 1996 the institute has worked under the leadership of N.N. Nemova, RAS Corr. Fellow.