Director Nikolai Vasilyevich Koshkin: the Institute has become Chemical and Pharmaceutical again

Abstract

By the end of the 1940s, it was necessary to intensify the engineering personnel training and development in the medical industry. Pharmaceutical institutes were chosen by the Soviet Healthcare Authorities to hold training sessions. For this purpose, the Leningrad Pharmaceutical Institute was transferred from the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR to the Main Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Health of the USSR to be further specialized in the training of chemical engineering technologists, chemical engineers for chemical and pharmaceutical plants and microbiological engineers for antibiotic production plants. At the same time, the historical name Chemistry and Pharmacy was returned to the institute.
 The paper reconstructs the biography of Nikolay V. Koshkin, a chemist, the Director of the Leningrad Institute of Pharmacy (Chemistry and Pharmacy) from 1947 to 1952 (now Saint Petersburg State Chemical and Pharmaceutical University, SPCPU) based on unpublished materials from Saint Petersburg archives. N. Koshkin, a graduate of the Leningrad State University and a student of Academician V.E. Tishchenko, made a notable contribution to the establishment of chemical engineering technologists program in the pharmaceutical institute. He also returned the priority of chemical disciplines in the pharmaceutical training, both for pharmacy and chemical-pharmaceutical production. N. Koshkin initiated the training of microbiological engineers. During his administration, there was an attempt to establish a publishing house at the institute. Many textbooks were published, later on used by generations of students.