Sergei Nikolaevich Winogradsky ForMemRS[1] (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Виноградский; Ukrainian: Сергій Миколайович Виноградський; 13 September [O.S.

1 September] 1856, Kyiv – 24 February 1953, Brie-Comte-Robert),[2] also published under the name Sergius Winogradsky,[3] was a Ukrainian and Russian microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who pioneered the cycle-of-life concept.

[6] His research on nitrifying bacteria would report the first known form of chemoautotrophy, showing how a lithotroph fixes carbon dioxide (CO2) to make organic compounds.

In 1905, due to ill health, the scientist left the institute and moved from St. Petersburg to the town of Gorodok in Podolia, where from 1892 he owned a huge estate.

In 1922, he accepted an invitation to head the Pasteur Institute's division of agricultural bacteriology at an experimental station at Brie-Comte-Robert, France, about 30 km from Paris.

With the discovery of organisms that oxidized inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonium as energy sources, autotrophs could be divided into two groups: photoautotrophs and chemoautotrophs.

Winogradsky was one of the first researchers to attempt to understand microorganisms outside of the medical context, making him among the first students of microbial ecology and environmental microbiology.