22 January] 1874 – December 4, 1928) was a Russian-American scientist in the fields of Histology and Embryology whose team developed the hypothesis about the existence of "polyblasts".

During this time he completed his first scientific works, and he was awarded the gold medal for research on the "Histogenesis of experimentally induced amyloid degeneration of the liver in animals" published in the journal Russian Archives of pathology, clinical medicine and bacteriology.

[2][3] From 1922 until his death in 1928, he served as a professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago and conducted his research with his sister Claudia as congenial lab technician and co-worker at his side ("...(stand) ihm seine Schwester Claudia als kongeniale Laborantin und Mitarbeiterin zur Seite...")[2] From 1896 until 1902, Maximow authored numerous papers, concerning a variety of histologic problems, which established the background for his future work.

Maximow wrote "the world's most respected textbook in histology," a book that became a standard text for medical students and ran to 12 editions.

[3] For four years before Maximow's death, fellow histologist William Bloom worked closely with him on the Textbook of Histology.