Valentin Koptyug was a Soviet scientist specializing in chemistry, a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and, later, the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Koptyug was born in Yukhnov in 1931 in the family of the director of the local communication department and a telegrapher. On February 4th 1938 his father was arrested for counter-revolutionary activities (wrecking, counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation) and was executed nine days later. Because of this, the rest of the family had to move to Smolensk, where Koptyug's mother, Nadezhda Koptyug, started working as a barmaid. By 1941 she became the director of her workplace, but the starting war caused them to evacuate to Samarkand, where Valentin Koptyug eventually got his school diploma.

Valentin Koptyug graduated from D. Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology in Moscow in 1954. In 1960 he moved to Novosibirsk to work full time in the newly established Institute of Organic Chemistry where he completed his monography on isomerisation of aromatic compounds. Later, he became a chairman of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union; he was also the head of Novosibirsk State University for 2 years from 1978 to 1980.

The son of the enemy of the people, Koptyug himself was a staunch communist. Later in his life, he was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Koptyug protested against the ban of the CPSU and defended his right to call himself a communist in the Constitutional Court of Russia. His struggles were not in vain: CPRF was founded and Valentin Koptyug became a member of the first Presidium of the Central Committee in 1993 and held the position until his death on January 10th 1997.

As a chairman of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Koptyug worked hard to preserve its research institutes and create conditions for their development during the crysis of 90s. He believed that the state must support science and pushed for the reintroduction of planning for naukograds; however, he also proposed some reforms that encouraged the remaining science-heavy industry to participate in free market to keep research institutes afloat. They say Chinese mode of production combining planned and market economy inspired his decisions that helped the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences live through the rampant capitalism of 90s. Ultimately, Valentin Koptyug died defending science faithful to his principles.