In 1918, Chizhevsky graduated from the Moscow Commercial Institute with a degree in archeology. His Moscow State University Doctorate of Philosophy thesis was "On the periodicity of the world-historical process". (He would later call his view point heliotaraxy or heliotaraxia.) He lectured at Moscow University and Moscow Archaeological Institute on the History of Science in the Ancient World and the History of Archaeological Discovery. He attended lectures in physics and mathematics and studied at the Medical Department of Moscow University while working at the Lazarev Biophysical Research Institute. Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Svante Arrhenius invited Chizhevsky to work for him. At a home laboratory Chizhevsky performed research on the influence of ionized air on animals, establishing the physiological action of negative and positive ions in the air on living organisms. (Negative ions making them more excitable and positive making them more lethargic.) He went on to work in the Duorv Zoo-Psychology Laboratory as a senior scientist and professor. During this time he compiled statistics on biospheric processes and their connection with cycles of solar activity.