Amirejibi Simon

Simon S. Amirejibi [6 (18). 08. 1877, Sagholasheni village, nowadays Kareli region, – 24. 10. 1936, Tbilisi] was a scientist, pioneer of bacteriology and hygiene in Georgia, and a professor (1919).

In 1903, he graduated from the Medical Faculty at the University of Kharkiv. While still a student in the second year, he discovered a new substance, carnosine, in meat extract. From 1907 to 1919 he was the head of the Serum and Vaccine department at Kharkiv Medical Society. From 1915 to 1919, he headed the Bacteriological department at the same institution. He returned to Georgia in 1919. He was one of the organizers of the medical faculty at Tbilisi State University (1919), founder of the bacteriology department (1919), and general hygiene (1920) at this faculty. He founded a microbiology department at the Faculty of Agriculture at Tbilisi State University (1919). He was also one of the founders of the Tbilisi Institute of Sanitary Hygiene and its director (1926–33).

In 1919, he spearheaded the production of vaccines and serums in Georgia. He studied issues of sanitation, sewage treatment, water supply, pollution and cleaning of the Mtkvari River in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities. He studied sanitary-hygienic conditions in Chiatura mines. Moreover, he also researched the microplankton of the Black Sea and did other research. He created the first Georgian textbook for Medical Microbiology. 

Sources: სამკურნალო მიკრობიოლოგია, ტფ., 1933; Zur Kenntnis der Extractivstoffe der Muskeln, «Hoppe-Seyler´s Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie», 1900, Bd. 30, H.6 (თანაავტ.: W. Gulewitsch).