Nikolai Semenovich Kurnakov

Nikola Semenovich Kurnakov was a Russian chemist who was internationally recognized as the originator of physicochemical analysis and he was one of the principal founders of the platinum industry in the USSR. A chemical reaction that he pioneered, known as the Kurnakov test, is still used to differentiate cis from trans isomers of divalent platinum and is his bestknown contribution to coordination chemistry.

Kurnakov was born in Nolinsk, Kirov Oblast. He attended a high school at Nizhny Novgorod and later studied at the mining institute in St. Petersburg. He published his first paper on alum crystallization and sodium thioantimoniate in 1882. In the same year he graduated as a mining engineer.

Source: Wikipedia