Khudoyor Yusufbekovich Yusufbekov (, ; December 10, 1928 — November 27, 1990) was a Soviet scientist and organizer of scientific projects and institutes in Pamir. He was a leading scientist who made a significant contribution to the development of biological sciences, whose name is connected with a new direction of the development of plant growing in the arid mountain and highland territory of Pamir-Alay; a prominent specialist in the field of plant growing, plant introduction and pasture economy, meadow studies, phyto-amelioration, and botany, Yusufbekov was a practicing field researcher, figure of higher education, and professor. In 1968, he developed a system for fodder improvement in the Pamir and Alay valleys that was differentiated from the perspective of the ecological and geographical areas and high-altitude zones. He also implemented a system of arid fodder, and proposed methods of cultivation of useful plants in the Pamir area in 1972. In 1970—1975, Khudoyor Yusufbekov developed the master plan of reconstruction of the Pamir Botanical Garden. In 1969, he became doctor of the agricultural sciences. In 1976, he became an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1962—1969, he was the director of the Pamir Biological Station; at the same time in 1965—1990, he was the Chairman of the Bureau of the Pamir Base; in 1969—1981, the director of the Pamir Biological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR; in 1981—1986, the rector of the Tajik Agricultural Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR; in 1986—1990, the Academician Secretary of the Biological Department of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR. From 1989, he was a Member of the Presidium of Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR. Moreover, he was a state and public figure, the head of the scientific council of the department of biological science of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR and a Member of the coordination council of the department of general biology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1987—1990). He was also a fellow of the Geographical Society of the USSR since 1965, Member of the All-Union and Central Asian Councils of the Botanical Gardens of the USSR (1972—1990), Member of the Council on the "Biological Foundations of the Rational Use and Protection of Flora" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1976—1990), Member of the Council on the "Biological Foundations of the Development of Mountain Territories in Central Asia" (1975—1990), Member of the Council of the All-Union Botanical Society (1976—1990).
Biography Early life and scientific activity Khudoyor Yusufbekovich Yusufbekov was born on December 10, 1928, in Pish, a village in Darmorakht subdistrict of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in the Tajik ASSR, USSR in the family of a kolkhoz member-gardener. He was 10 years old when his mother died. After finishing the seventh grade school in his village, he worked as a kolkhoz farmer and as a laborer in the construction of a road (1945—1946). In 1949, he graduated the Kirov secondary school in Khorog, and in 1949—1954, he studied in Tajik Agricultural Institute.During his studies, he showed interest towards scientific activities and actively participated in the work of the scientific circle at the agronomic faculty. Starting from 1954, he began his scientific activities in the Pamir Botanical Garden, where he worked under the supervision of Anatoly Gursky and did research on consolidation and developing of sand and pebble massifs in Ishkashim District, as well as work over developing the collections and production nurseries in the Pamir Botanical Garden. In 1956, Khudoyor Yusufbekov performed his first experiments on the meadow formation of the desert pastures on the West Pamir.
Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR In 1957 he began his full-time post-graduate study at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR in the city of Dushanbe under the supervision of professor Ivan Tsatsenkin (Moscow, the Williams All-Union Institute of Fodder) and pursued further his research on meadow formation of the mountainous deserted lands (slopes) in the Western Pamirs. After his graduation from the institute, he continued to work therein as a junior scientific worker. While working on further investigations of the Pamirs, he started the first experiments of improving the pastures in the central parts of Tajikistan (Kondara and Rangontay). During these years, Khudoyor Yusufbekov formulated and experimentally proved methods of creating highly productive forage lands by means of different types of irrigation systems for sowing grasses without disturbance of natural vegetation. The results of such investigations and tests introduced into the kolkhoz farm production of the Shughnan and Ishkashim districts of the GBAO in large areas were the basis of the master's thesis defended by him in 1961.
Pamir Biological Station of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR in Chechekty near Murghab In 1962—1969, he was the director of the Pamir Biological Station of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR, in the location of Chechekty (3860 meters above sea level) near Murghab — East Pamir,In 1963, he was awarded the academic title of senior researcher in the field of land reclamation and irrigated agriculture. In 1966, he joined the ranks of members of the CPSU. at the same time in 1965, he was elected the Chairman of the Bureau of the Pamir Base of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR.
During the working period at the biostation, he launched experimental work on improvement of pastures and hayfields in all areas of the GBAO, as well as the Alay Valley of the Kirghiz SSR. Under his leadership at the Pamir Biostation in 1964, three laboratories were created: physiology and biochemistry of plants; introduction of plants; experimental geobotany.
The scientific research activity of the biostation (the beginning of manifestation of the scientific and organizational abilities of Khudoyor Yusufbekov) acquired a complex character. Here, along with the problems of ecological physiology and biochemistry of plants initiated by Professor Oleg Zalensky, further studies were carried out on experimental geobotanics, phyto-amelioration, soil studies, microorganisms, climatology, and the issues of crop cultivation in the Eastern Pamirs.
During the years of his work, the number of employees and the volume of scientific research significantly increased, which had a positive effect on the activities of the biostation. The traditions of the biostation laid by Pavel Baranov, Ilariya Raikova,. Oleg Zalensky and Kirill Stanyukovich found a decent continuation in the activities of Khudoyor Yusufbekov.
During his work at the Pamir Biostation, Khudoyor Yusufbekov strengthened the material and technical base of the biological station with trucks, laboratory equipment, and chemical reagents in order to improve the conditions of the Pamir expeditionary survey and continued to improve methods for improving the desert and steppe pastures of the Pamir-Alay, by studying the structure of vegetation, and the topographical and ecological conditions of high-mountain pastures in a wide geographical and high-altitude range.
As a result, he developed a system of improving the feeding grounds of the Pamirs and the Alay Valley, differentiated by eco-geographical regions and high-altitude belts, and presented the findings in the form of a monograph published in 1968.
In 1968, Khudoyor Yusufbekov was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR.
In 1969, the monograph «Улучшение пастбищ и сенокосов Памира и Алайской долины» ("Improvement of pastures and hayfields of the Pamir and Alai Valley") was presented as a thesis (Moscow, the Williams All-Union Feed Institute), which Khudoyor Yusufbekov successfully defended to receive the degree of Doctor of Agricultural Sciences.
Pamir Biological Institute
In October 1968, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Mstislav Keldysh arrived in the Pamirs and visited the Pamir Botanical Garden. He was accompanied by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Tajik SSR , the President of the academy of the Tajik SSR, Muhammad Osimi, and the First Secretary of the Gorno-Badakhshan Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, . Khudoyor Yusufbekov reported in details history of Pamir study to the high-ranking guests, about its natural resources, about the problems that needed to be solved in the field of biology, agriculture and, at the end, having justified the question of the necessity of creating a biological institute in the Pamirs, he asked the support of Mstislav Keldysh in consideration and resolution of this issue in Moscow. With the expansion and deepening of research at the Pamir Biological station, as well as growth of the number of scientific staff and taking into account the unique conditions in Pamir and in order to coordinate all studies related to the arid mountain areas, he stressed out the importance of this.
Soon, the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR, Muhammad Osimi, and Khudoyor Yusufbekov were invited to Moscow to participate in the discussion of the establishment of a biological institute. At a joint meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the USSR State Committee on Science and Technology, the issue was resolved positively. In 1969, all the biological agencies of Pamir such as the Pamir Biological Station in the Eastern Pamir (3860 m above sea level), Pamir Botanical Garden near the town of Khorugh (2320 m above sea level), and the outpost in Ishkashim (2600 m above sea level) were combined by Khudoyor Yusufbekov into the Pamir Biological Institute, the first director of which he became after its foundation (1969—1981). Currently, the institute is named after him (1992).
Khudoyor Yusufbekov's scientific and organizational abilities were revealed at the post of director of the institute. Along with scientific work, he also led a great deal of organizational activity. He determined the structure of the units of the Institute. Along with the traditional lines of research, he started scientific works on zoology, genetics plant breeding, and nature protection.