Yuri Alexandrovich Sem (Russian: Юрий Александрович Сем) (1926-1995) - historian, ethnographer, folklorist, philologist, linguist, specialist in the field of culture of the peoples of the Far North, researcher of the small peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, creator of the Far Eastern school of ethnographers.

Born in Leningrad; Graduated from the historical and ethnographic department of the Northern Faculty of the Leningrad State University.

Refusing postgraduate studies, he left for Khabarovsk. He taught history at school, for many years he headed the department of ethnography at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, led the work of ethnographic and philological expeditions.

Since 1951 he worked in the Far Eastern expeditions. He collected and preserved materials and collections on the ethnography and folklore of the peoples of the Amur region and Sakhalin - Nanai, Ulchi, Oroks, Nivkhs, Ainu, Evens.