Ph.D., professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and honored figure of science of the USSR
He was born on March 21, 1902, in Nor Nakhichevan. He received his primary education at the local male gymnasium. In 1926 graduated from the YSU Faculty of Agriculture.
In 1934 defended a candidate, and in 1939 - a doctoral theses. In 1940, he became a professor. In 1968, Chailakhyan was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, then in 1971, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
From 1928-1929, Chailakhyan was an instructor at the Department of Agriculture of the People's Commissariat of Armenia, and from 1929-1931, assistant professor at the Department of Botany of the Transcaucasian Animal husbandry-Veterinary Institute. From 1935-1939 and 1944-1991 led the plant development laboratory of the K. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, founded by him. Chailakhyan was the head of YSU Plant Anatomy and Physiology Chair for about ten years, and from 1941-1946, also Head of Plant Physiology and Microbiology Chairs. From 1941 he worked at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the ASSR, where in 1942, he founded a laboratory of plant physiology.
Chailakhyan is the author of 19 monographs, more than 350 articles, books, and methodological manuals. He is the founder of the hormone theory of plant development and flowering (1937), which brought him worldwide recognition. Researched the nature and mechanism of action of a new group of phytohormones, gibberellins, and developed methods of their application in viticulture.
50 PhD and 10 doctoral theses were defended under his guidance.
He was a true member of the "Leopoldina" Academy of German naturalists, an honorary member of the American and other scientific societies of plant physiologists, and botanists, and an honorary doctor of the University of Rostock (Germany).
In 1967, Chailakhyan became an honored figure of science of the ASSR and was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, and the Red Star.
Chailakhyan passed away on November 30, 1991, in Moscow.
