VADIM BIRSTEIN

BIRSTEIN--Dr. Vadim J., scientist and historian, aged 78, passed away suddenly on June 12, 2023. Dr. Birstein was born on October 10, 1944, to Jacob A. Birstein, noted ichthyologist and evolutionist and Nonna Luppo, a pediatrician, in Moscow, Russia. He was the nephew of the well-known Russian painter Max Birstein. He earned his doctorate in Biology at Moscow University and worked as a geneticist at the Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology in Moscow, as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts and as a Visiting Scientist at the AMNH. He was the author of over 150 scientific papers and was internationally known as an expert on sturgeons. Dr. Birstein was also a life-long human rights activist, working with the international human rights organization Memorial. Dr. Birstein researched for many years the fate of Raoul Wallenberg and was the author of three scholarly history books on the Soviet secret services. He is survived by his wife Kathryn, his daughter, Irina Birshteyn, and his first cousins Anya Birshteyn and Sofya Abbott.