author
Olga Metchnikoff
Best remembered for writing a close-up biography of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Élie Metchnikoff, she was also his collaborator and the keeper of a remarkable scientific legacy. Her life moved between Russia and France, and her own papers were later preserved by the Institut Pasteur.
1 Audiobook
Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916
by Olga Metchnikoff
About the author
Born Olga Belokopytova in Russia in 1858, Olga Metchnikoff became the wife and collaborator of Élie Metchnikoff, the pioneering biologist and immunologist. Archival records from the Institut Pasteur describe her as his spouse and collaborator, and note that she died in Paris in 1944.
She is known to readers as the author of Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916, published in English translation in 1921. The book stands out because it was written by someone who had direct knowledge of both the scientist's work and his personal life, giving it an unusual sense of closeness and detail.
Although information about her independent career is limited in the sources reviewed here, her continuing importance is clear: her papers were preserved after her death and are now part of the historical record connected with the Institut Pasteur. That makes her not just a biographer of science, but also an important witness to it.