On August 29, 2008, Yevgenia Ivanovna Derevyanko, Deputy Head of the Department of Paleometallic Archaeology, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, celebrated her anniversary. Evgenia Ivanovna is a representative of the first set of employees of the Institute. Here she worked her way up from laboratory assistant to chief scientific officer.

Elena Derevyanko was born in the Far East to a working-class family. She had to fully experience all the difficulties of the war and post-war period. Yevgenia Ivanovna's father, Ivan Alexandrovich, went through the entire war and died of wounds in 1950, while Evdokia Petrovna's mother worked in a shoe factory. Probably, the difficult childhood and upbringing of her parents formed such remarkable qualities as honesty, decency, and humanity in Yevgenia. Yevgenia Ivanovna is not only respected, but also loved by her friends and colleagues.

After graduating from high school in Blagoveshchensk in 1955, Yevgenia entered the History and Philology Department of the Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical Institute, which she successfully graduated from in 1960. She met Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov, who invited the Derevyanko family to move to Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok in 1964.

At that time, the Novosibirsk Scientific Center was experiencing a rapid rise. In the atmosphere of creative communication between outstanding scientists, representatives of various sciences and young people, Yevgenia Ivanovna was formed as a young scientist. Of course, her teacher, Academician A. P. Okladnikov, played a huge role in this, working with him allowed her to expand her theoretical knowledge, as well as gain field work experience. A. P. Okladnikov also proposed to Yevgenia Ivanovna a scientific topic that was practically undeveloped at that time - the Mohe tribes of the Amur region. Yevgenia Ivanovna is still engaged in it at the present time.

In the 1960s and 1980s, E. I. Derevyanko conducted independent research on the settlements and burial grounds of Mohe. Under her guidance, such well-known monuments as the Troitsky and Novopetrovsky burial grounds, the Mikhailovskoye hillfort, Osinovoe Ozero, Semiozerka, Mount Shapka, the Grodekovo and Kuryn settlements were brilliantly studied, which are considered to be reference sites for the Mokhe culture due to the analysis and interpretation of the obtained materials.

In 1974, Yevgenia Ivanovna defended her PhD thesis, and in 1982 - her doctoral dissertation on the topic " Tribes of the Amur region in the first millennium AD (essays on ethnic history and culture)". In essence, these works made E. I. Derevyanko one of the leading experts in the field of archeology and ancient history of the Far East. She developed reconstructions of almost all aspects of the life of the Mohe tribes-the creators of the first state formation of the Tungus-Manchu peoples. It is impossible to overestimate the contribution of Evgenia Ivanovna to the study of the problems of ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Amur region. Studies of the unique Troitsky burial ground (which are still being successfully carried out) have made it possible for the first time to obtain mass anthropological material confirming the concept of Tungus inhabiting the banks of the Amur River.

The formation of the scientist's personality was also influenced by her work at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where she worked as a senior researcher from 1977 to 1979. As Yevgenia Ivanovna herself notes, creative contacts with Academician V. P. Alekseev, doctors of Sciences A. I. Pershits, L. A. Fainberg, and V. A. Shnirelman - major domestic specialists in the field of primitive history-were of great importance for her.

E. I. Derevyanko always combined active field research in the Far East with analytical work. She is the author of more than 100 publications, including ten monographs, among which a special place is occupied by a series of books devoted to a comprehensive study of the material and spiritual culture, ethnogenesis and ethnic history of Mohe. Yevgenia Ivanovna's works are in demand by the international scientific community. More than 30 works of the scientist have been published abroad - in Japan, Korea, China and other countries. E. I. Derevyanko's monograph "The Tribes of the Amur Region in the first millennium AD" has been published in China. Evgeny Ivanovna Derevyanko is a participant of many international scientific conferences and is often invited to make presentations.

E. I. Derevyanko-member of the Academic Council of the Institute, member of the Dissertation Council for doctoral dissertations in archeology and ethnography. Training of highly qualified scientific personnel occupies a special place in the activity of a scientist. Evgenia Ivanovna is an expert on almost all PhD and doctoral theses that are discussed at the Institute. Its assessment is always strict, but at the same time fair and informal. Yevgenia Ivanovna's comments and suggestions help applicants work on their dissertation. E. I. Derevyanko directs the training of domestic and foreign graduate students. She is truly motherly about her young colleagues, graduate students from Korea and Mongolia, who find it difficult to adapt to unusual conditions.

Yevgenia Ivanovna meets her anniversary in the prime of her creative powers. New books, new students, and new concerns lie ahead.