Boris Balinsky

He died in Johannesburg 1 September 1997. He had a son John Balinsky who is also a scientist.

Borys Ivanovych Balinsky (23 September 1905 – 1 September 1997) was a Ukrainian and South African biologist, embryologist, entomologist, professor of Kyiv University and University of the Witwatersrand. Pioneer researcher in the field of experimental embryology, electron microscopy and developmental biology. He was author of popular textbook in embryology An Introduction to Embryology.

Balinsky was born 23 September 1905, in Kyiv, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). He was a student of Ivan Schmalhausen and one of the first to experimentally induce organogenesis in amphibian embryos. Balinsky was a full university professor and the deputy director of the Institute of Biology in Kyiv (now I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology) at 28 years of age. He became a recognized expert in fish and amphibian development. Being a victim of Soviet repressions, he remained under German occupation during World War II and fled to Poznań, Poland and later Munich, Germany. Balinsky briefly worked in Scotland in Conrad Hal Waddington's laboratory on mice embryology. Finally, he went to South Africa to become one of the founders of South African experimental bioscience.