Dr. Vladimir N. Ipatieff, noted Russian scientist who is director of chemical research at the Universal Oil Products Company, Riverside, and a professor at Northwestern University, expressed astonishment when shown a newspaper dispatch from Moscow yesterday stating that his expulsion from the Russian Academy of Science had been demanded.

His ouster was demanded along with that of Alexis Chichibabin on the charge that they refused to return and work in Russia. Chichibabin, Professor Ipatieff said, is one of the world's foremost organic chemists and is now living in Paris.

"This is totally unexpected," he declared, "I have had the most cordial relations with the Russian Academy ever since I left Russia in 1930. During the last six years I have continually sent the academy the results of my experiments here, and they have just published a translation of my recent 2book, Catalytic Reactions at High Pressures."

In October, he explained, he received a request from the Russian Academy to return and work in Russia. This he had to refuse because he has a contract with the Universal Oil Products Company, which runs for two more years. A pioneer in the study of chemical reactions, Dr. Ipatieff has recently developed a process for making "polymer" gasoline, which functions at very high pressure and is valuable for aviation and military uses.

He considers himself strictly a scientist and never mixes in politics, but from 1917 to 1930 held an important post in the Soviet government commissariat of industry. If his expulsion from the academy now takes place it may mean he can never return to Russia, but he intends to continue his work here under any circumstances. He is also a member of the American and German chemical societies, and the present Russian ambassador at Washington, Alexander Trojanovsky, was a former pupil of his in Russia.