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Boguslav S. Kurlovich Scientist

Boguslav Kurlovich (born January 18, 1948 in western Belarus, on the territory of pre-war Poland) is a Russian-Finnish scientific agronomist, doctor of biological science, professor, expert in the field of plant genetic resources, botany, plant and fish breeding, follower of N.I. Vavilov.Employment History: 1973-1997 - N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, St. Petersburg. Russia; 1997-2011 - International North Express CO, Finland. Main objectives of the scientific activity of Prof. Boguslav S. Kurlovich are the collection and study of Plant genetic resources as initial material for plant breeding. Boguslav Kurlovich has participated in 15 plant collecting missions, explored different regions of former USSR (Siberia, Far East, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Middle Asia, Ukraine) and many others countries (Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Algeria, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Finland) and has collected a wide diversity of leguminous plants and their wild relatives, which are effectively used in Plant breeding in Finland, Poland, Belarus, Russia and in many other countries. Prof. Kurlovich is the author of many taxa in Genus Lupinus L. and the author of many cultivars of lupin (cv. Pervenec, Truvor, Novozybkovsky). He has developed Vavilov's doctrines with reference to lupins. Vavilov's idea about the law of homologous series in hereditary variation gives the answer to the question what material should be looked for, while the theory of the centers of origin of cultivated plants responds to the question where it should be looked for. With reference to Lupinus, Vavilov considered the Mediterranean region and mountain areas of Mexico, Peru and others American countries as the centers of origin for this genus. Generalization of prof. Kurlovich, based on the differential systematic-geographical method of plants studies provided for more precise definition of the centers of formation and origin (diversity) of some lupin species. According to data of Kurlovich, the center of formation of wild white lupin (L. albus L.) and the primary center of origin (diversity) of its initial cultivated forms is the Balkans where an exceptionally wide diversity of wild and local forms as well as those that turned wild is concentrated. All three subspecies of white lupin (subsp. graecus Franko et Silva, subsp. termis Ponert., subsp. albus) occur on the Balkans, and it is mainly in this region that wild forms with dotted dark-brown seeds and dark-blue flowers are found (subsp. graecus). Additional confirmation is the Greek name of white lupin: “thermos” (hot). The centers of diversity of cultivated white lupin also include the Apennines and Egypt where cultivated forms of white lupin originated in the ancient times. Moreover, in the ancient Egypt forms with pink-and-blue or light-pink flowers were spread (subsp. termis), and on the Apennines forms with grayish-and-light-blue or white flowers were distributed (subsp. albus. Prof. Boguslav S. Kurlovich is the author of 200 scientific publications, including the following: