Famous Russian morphologist Iraida Mikhailovna Pestova

The article is devoted to the prominent Russian histologist of the Soviet period, Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences Iraida Mikhailovna Pestova. The authors of the article were interested in her primarily as a graduate of the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute (now Ural State Medical University), and Iraida Mikhailovna was a representative of its legendary first edition. After graduating from the institute in 1936, Iraida Mikhailovna entered graduate school at the Department of Anatomy and studied for a year under the guidance of A.P. Lavrentiev, founder and first head of the Department of Anatomy at the Sverdlovsk Medical University. In 1937, I.M. Pestova moved to Perm, where she was enrolled in graduate school at the Department of Histology to Professor P.Ya. Lakhovsky. This was the beginning of her successful career as a histologist, which led to outstanding scientific achievements and long-term head of the Department of Histology at the Perm State Medical Institute. The main scientific direction of her department was the study of the immune and hematopoietic systems of vertebrates in the evolutionary aspect. The article shows the main stages of I.M.'s life and work. Pestova, her contribution to science and teaching, professional and personal qualities.