I am approaching my 80th jubilee in a few months, and I believe it puts me in a position to fairly and critically evaluate the years spent in the presence and absence of the “Iron Curtain” – years that have gone by sooner than I expected. In 1957, I was fortunate to be selected for the very first group of Soviet students delegated to the German Democratic Republic to complete our chemical education. I graduated in 1962 from the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, which gave me broad chemical knowledge and some command of the German language (as well as a few key English phrases).

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About the Author

Vadim Davankov

Vadim Davankov is Professor and Head of the Laboratory for Stereochemistry of Sorption Processes, Nesmeyanov-Institute of Organoelement Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He was born on November 20, 1937 in Moscow, and followed in the footsteps of his parents by studying at the Mendeleev Higher School for Chemical Technology. He later graduated from the Technische Hochschule Dresden, and there, despite the recommendations of USSR Embassy officials, married a Greek woman, Evtichia. He joined the Nesmeyanov-Institute in Moscow as a technician in 1962, gained a PhD and DrSc, and became a full professor in 1980. He is the proud recipient of numerous awards, including the State Award of Russia (1996), Distinguished Scientist of Russia (2005), Kargin Award in Polymer Chemistry (2017), Chirality Gold Medal (1999), Martin Gold Medal (2005), Molecular Chirality International Award (2010), M. Tswett & W. Nernst Separation Science EU Award (2010). He has two sons, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.