Oparin, Alexandr Ivanovich (1894–1980)

Russian biochemist who in the 1920s developed one of the first of the modern theories about the origin of life on Earth, postulating a primeval soup of biomolecules.

Oparin was born near Moscow and studied plant physiology at Moscow State University. In 1929 he became professor of plant biochemistry at Moscow State University. He was a cofounder of the Bakh Institute of Biochemistry in Moscow 1935, and its director from 1946.

Oparin's ideas about the origin of life contained three basic premises: that the first organisms arose in the ancient seas, which contained many already formed organic compounds that the organisms used as nutriment; that there was a constant, virtually limitless supply of external energy in the form of sunlight; and that true life was characterized by a high degree of structural and functional organization, contrary to the prevailing view that life was basically molecular. Oparin's theory, first published 1924, stimulated much research into the origin of life, notably US chemist Stanley Miller's attempt in 1953 to reproduce primordial conditions in the laboratory.

Oparin also researched into enzymology and did much to provide a technical basis for industrial biochemistry in the USSR.

His works include The Origin of Life on Earth 1936.