Professor Nikolai N. Shevlyuk: on his 75th birthday

In December 2025, the distinguished Russian histologist and educator, Doctor of Sciences in Biology, Professor of the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology of Orenburg State Medical University, and Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Nikolai N. Shevlyuk, celebrated his 75th birthday. He was born on December 10, 1950, in the village of Linovitsk, Martuk District, Aktobe Region, Kazakh SSR, into a family of workers at the Shevchenko Machine and Tractor Station. In 1972, after graduating with honors from the Orenburg Pedagogical Institute (Faculty of Natural Geography, Department of Biology and Chemistry), Shevlyuk entered postgraduate studies at the Department of Histology, Cytology, and Embryology of the Orenburg Medical Institute. Upon completing his postgraduate training in 1975, he remained at the department, where he advanced from Assistant to Professor: 1975–1990 — Assistant; 1990–1998 — Associate Professor; since 1998 — Professor. Alongside his main position, from 1998 to 2006, Professor Shevlyuk worked at the Laboratory of Functional Cell Morphology of the Institute of Cellular and Intracellular Symbiosis, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, first as Senior, and later as Leading Researcher. From 2000 to 2017, he concurrently served as Professor at the Department of Zoology and Ecology of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Shevlyuk was awarded the Candidate of Sciences in Biology degree in 1978 and the Doctor of Sciences in Biology degree in 1998; the academic title of Associate Professor in 1991 and that of Professor in 2000. Professor Shevlyuk is one of the leading scholars in the fields of ecological-morphological, comparative, and evolutionary histology, morphogenesis and regeneration, the history of science, and the methodology of teaching histology. The analysis of the vast body of factual material he has accumulated is reflected in an impressive number of scientific publications. Professor Shevlyuk was the first to describe the ultrastructure of Leydig cells in the testes of several vertebrate species and to identify key directions of adaptive transformations in testicular endocrinocytes under various destabilizing influences. Nikolai N. Shevlyuk founded the major Orenburg school of histology, whose cornerstone is the study of ecological morphology of the reproductive organs of vertebrates inhabiting anthropogenically transformed and natural ecosystems of the steppe zone of the Southern Urals. He has served as the head of this school for about 25 years. Colleagues, students, and the editorial board of the Morphology journal sincerely wish Professor Nikolai N. Shevlyuk good health, family happiness, unfailing optimism, and new scientific and creative achievements.