Augusts Kirhenšteins, formerly spelt Kirchenšteins (18 September 1872 – 3 November 1963), was a Latvian and Soviet microbiologist, politician and educator.

Augusts Kirhenšteins was born on 18 September 1872 on the estate of Valtenberg Manor in Mazsalaca, in the Governorate of Livonia.

[1] He was the eldest son of the tenant Mārtiņš Kirhenšteins and his wife Baba, in a family of eleven children.

In 1911, he began work in Davos at the Institute for Tuberculosis Research as an assistant to the bacteriologist Carl Spengler.

Working as its director, he made a major contribution to the development of science in Latvia, especially in the fields of microbiology, immunology, dairy farming and biotechnology.