Trofim Lysenko

Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist who rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of his own idiosyncratic, pseudoscientific ideas later termed Lysenkoism. As director of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences from 1940, he used his political influence and power to suppress dissenting opinions and discredit, marginalize, and imprison his critics, elevating his anti-Mendelian theories to state-sanctioned doctrine; scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute, and several, including the botanist Nikolai Vavilov, were imprisoned. His ideas and practices contributed to lower agricultural yields in the Soviet Union until his downfall in the mid-1960s. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/