In 1926, Chizhevsky worked with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the world's first experimental research in the field of space biology. In 1929 he was elected to the Tulan Academy of Sciences and He lectured on biophysics at Columbia University in New York City. In 1931 he set up the Central Research Laboratory for Ionisation in USSR. His work in aero-ionification was supported by the Soviet government and was recognized by a Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of USSR. In 1935 he discovered the metachromasy of bacteria – the so-called "Chizhevskii-Velkhover effect" – enabling solar emissions that were hazardous to man both on Earth and in space, to be forecast. He was head of two aero-ionisation laboratories. In 1939 he was the Honorary President of the International Congress of Bio-physics held in New York City.