Boris <Borukh> Yakovlevich Kaplan (1922-2017), soldiers of WWII and 1949 graduate of Moscow University, was an expert in polarography. He worked first in the chemical lab of the Geological Authority, and then in the Institute of Rare-Earth Industry (ГИРЕДМЕТ) during 1960-1992, developing various versions of ac electroanalytical techniques and amalgam polarography. He authored the monographs on pulsed polarography (1978), on ac voltammetry (1984), and on metrology of analysis in non-ferrous metallurgy (1984, 1989). In 1992, he left for Israel. This obituary (in Russian) is published by his colleagues from Israel, Russia, and Moldova. Few articles can be found at our polarographic page, published in 1957 (review), 1962, 1964.

Semen Borisovich Tsfasman (1916-1963) was an expert in automation, who started as a lineman in 1933, and then graduated from Moscow Power Engineering Institute (МЭИ) in 1941. After four years at the fronts of WWII, he became a head of test instruments and automation department at so-named “Mayak” plant in Chelyabinsk region (Ural). In 1953 he was dismissed from this strongly secured huge plant built to produce various isotops for soviet nuclear program. This dismissal induced a lot of complications and living problems for him, and finally he was affiliated with applied metallurgical institutions in Moscow, and started with equipment for polarography. His contribution to this field can be hardly overestimated, as well as his book “Electronic polarographs” (1960). His selected publications can be found at our polarographic page.