Vera Aleksandrovna Kovalevskaya-Chistovich /Вера Александровна Ковалевская-Чистович/, the wife of pathologist and professor Fyodor Yakovlevich Chistovich (1870-1942), was not only his associate and inspirer, but also a scientist and bacteriologist. She was born into the family of a prominent biologist and embryologist Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky (1840-1901) and Tatyana Kirillovna Kovalevskaya (née Semenova) (1845-1913) in 1869 (1870?)
Vera Aleksandrovna studied at the medical institute in Bern, defended her dissertation on the topic of the motor response of microorganisms to a chemical stimulus (chemotaxis). Then she worked for I.I. Mechnikova at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, took exams for admission to Russian medical practice in Helsingfors. She became one of the first certified female doctors, Doctors of Medicine.
Vera Alexandrovna was the first female full-time assistant (1898-1907) at the first microbiology department in Russia at the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute, where she worked under the leadership of D.K. Zabolotny.
After the revolution of 1917, returning from Kazan, where her family lived for several years, Vera Alexandrovna continued her work at the Institute for Advanced Medical Studies in Leningrad. V.A. died Kovalevskaya-Chistovich in July 1928.
Vera Aleksandrovna studied at the medical institute in Bern, defended her dissertation on the topic of the motor response of microorganisms to a chemical stimulus (chemotaxis). Then she worked for I.I. Mechnikova at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, took exams for admission to Russian medical practice in Helsingfors. She became one of the first certified female doctors, Doctors of Medicine.
Vera Alexandrovna was the first female full-time assistant (1898-1907) at the first microbiology department in Russia at the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute, where she worked under the leadership of D.K. Zabolotny.
After the revolution of 1917, returning from Kazan, where her family lived for several years, Vera Alexandrovna continued her work at the Institute for Advanced Medical Studies in Leningrad. V.A. died Kovalevskaya-Chistovich in July 1928.
Black and white photograph of the badge that belonged to Vera Alexandrovna /black and white photo from the collection of Russian Museum of Military Medicine in Saint Petersburg/.