Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin (Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Опарин, March 2 (February 18 Julian) 1894 – April 21, 1980) was a Soviet biologist and biochemist. He was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and founder of the RAS Biochemistry Institute (1935). In 1924 he put forward a theory of life on Earth developing through gradual chemical evolution of carbon-based molecules in primeval soup.

On his passing in 1980, he was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Major works

• "The External Factors in Enzyme Interactions Within a Plant Cell"
• "The Origin of Life on Earth"
• "Life, Its Nature, Origin and Evolution"
• "The History of the Theory of Genesis and Evolution of Life"

See also

• Biopoiesis
• Miller experiment