Astra Reitblat (1923–2003), a zoologist, parasitologist, and epidemiologist

An essay about a researcher who began her scientific career in Kyiv as a theriologist and studied small mammals in the city's green areas (1950). In the following years, she became involved in studying rodent ectoparasites in Dagestan and Stavropol as part of her work in the system of anti-plague stations in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. From c. 1967 until the end of her life (2002), she had worked at the Stavropol Research Institute of Plague Control of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Remaining primarily an acarologist and epidemiologist, the researcher constantly worked on theriological objects, such as gerbils, water voles, and ground squirrels. In Kyiv, she maintained relations with the Shcherbak family of zoologists.