I was born in Moscow on 7 September 1900. My father - Vladimir Viktorovich Timofeeff-Ressovsky (1850-1913) was a transport engineer. My mother - Nadezhda Nikolaevna (1868-1928) - was Vsevolozhskaja before marriage.My first school was the Kiev first Imperial Alexander high school (1911-1913), then it was the Moscow Flerov high school (1914-1917), and Moscow Open University (1917-1922).I worked as a teacher of Biology at the Prechistenka department in Moscow, a teacher of Zoology at the department of Biotechnology at the Practical Institute in Moscow (1922-1925), as an assistant at the zoology Chair of the Moscow medical-pedologic Institute (prof. N.K. Koltsov) (1924-1925), and as a scientist at the Institute of Experimental Biology (the Director prof. N.K. Koltsov. 1921-1925).On the invitation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for Scietific Research Support in Berlin and after the recommendation of professor N.K. Koltsov and Public Health Comissar N.A. Semashko I worked from 1925 until 1946 as a scientific leader of the genetics department at the Brain Research Institute in Berlin-Buch.In 1947-1955 I worked as the Head of the biophysics department number 0211, in 1955-1964 as the Head of the biophysics department at the Institute of Biology, the Urals Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in Sverdlovsk; in 1964-1969 as the Head of the radiobiology and genetics department at the Institute of Medical Radiology, the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, in Obninsk (Kaluga region); since 1969 until now I have been working as a consultant at the Institute of Medical Biological Problems in Moscow.Being educated and since young years interested in zoology (particularly, zooplankton, freshwater fish and coastal birds of Palearctics), I was preoccupied in hydrobiology of Middle Russia lakes in 1920-1923, and since 1922 up to the present moment I have been involved in the research in genetics, biophysics and evolution problems. Since the 1920s I have been studying, mainly on drosophila, problems in phenogenetics, mutation process, population genetics and elaboration of some basic aspects of microevolution processes.From the 30s to the beginning of the 60s I studied the accumulation and segmentation of a number of elements, mainly by hydrobionts and ground plant organisms, employing the method of tagged atoms (radioisotopes); the central point of these studies was the research of elements in the limits of biogeocenoses.For eighteen years (from the late 20s to the middle of the 40s) a small group of scientists under my guidance conducted systematic zoogeographic and experimental genetic research in a monographic study of inside species changeability of the plant-eating ladybird Epilachna chrysomelina F. This study was related to the elaboration of microevolution processes.In more general achievements in modern natural sciences I had chances to participate in the development of the concept of hitting the target and the booster principle in radiobiology; in the classification of changeability phenomena in the phenotypical demonstration of mainly the last stages of the postembryonal features development, which are determined by mutations under the influence of the genotype, outer and inner media; in the field of phenogenetics, gene phenomenology and in the working out of concepts and factors of microevolution process and the relationship between micro- and macroevolution.Two circumstances helped me to comprehend theoretically and classify in mind the experimental results I obtained. Firstly, in the early 20s a section was organized by the group of S.S. Chetverikov at the Koltsov Institute on the mutual discussion of all experiments we conducted and the most important papers on the questions of our interest (soon, from 1922 the section was called "Drozsoor", as the main experimental object was drosophila).

Later, all my life, my closest friends and colleagues from other laboratories and I established such informal free sections, and it brightened the scientific process and helped much in work. Secondly, the general scope of my interests and those of my colleagues, as well as the accuracy in formalization of the necessary biological notions, was much influenced by a happy combination of conditions which allowed me to be acquainted, and in some cases, to become close friends with, or sometimes, to cooperate and consult with outstanding mathematicians, physicists, chemists, geologists, geographers and biologists not only in Russia, but also abroad; for example, I had a chance to take part in seminars of the "N. Bohr Circle" in Copenhagen, besides, I organized in coordination with B.S. Efrussi (with financial support of the Rockfeller Foundation) a small international group of twenty scientists, among whom were physicists, chemists, cytologists, geneticists, biologists and mathematicians, who were keen on discussions of most vital problems in biology. The members of the group gathered at lively sea resorts in Denmark, Holland and Belgium in the end of the 30s, before the war.

I am a full member of the German Natural Science Research Academy "Leopoldina" in Halle, Germany; an honorary member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in Boston, USA; an honorary member of the Italian Society of experimental biology, Italy; an honorary member of the Mendel Society in Lund, Sweden; an honorary member of the British Genetic Society in Leeds, UK; an honorary member and a founder of the N. Vavilov Society of Geneticists and Selectionists, USSR; a scientific member of the Society for Scietific Research Support after M. Planck, Germany; a full member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists; the All-Union Geographical Society, USSR; the All-Union Botanic Society, USSR; I am awarded with the Lazzaro Spallanzani Medal (Italy), the Darwin Prize (Germany), the Mendel Prize (Czechoslovakia and Germany), the Kimber Prize (USA).