Russian composer, chemist, and physician.

Alexander Borodin studied at the academy of medicine in St. Petersburg, where he later taught chemistry. He also helped found a school of medicine for women.

An amateur musician, he had little musical training, consisting mainly of study with Balakirev.

His principal works are two symphonies; several fine songs; an orchestral tone poem,In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880); and an opera, Prince Igor, left unfinished, which Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov completed.

It was first performed in St. Petersburg in 1890.

Borodin was one of a group of Russian composers known as The Mighty Five.