Nina Yakovlevna Artemchuk was born in Moscow in 1936. Shortly after finishing her studies at Moscow's Lomonosov State University she moved to Kiev. For some time she worked as an engineer in the Department of Fungal Physiology of the Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology & Virology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, under the direction of V.I. Bilay. In 1964, she began her postgraduate study in Sevastopol', at the Kovalevsky Institute for Biology of the Southern Seas, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her dissertation work dealt with fungi of the Black Sea. For some years (1965-1966) she took samples from water, the ground and non-microscopic plants, mainly in the litoral zone of the Black Sea near Sevastopol' (Kamyshovaya and Kazachya bays), along the coast near Cape Aya and Cape Fiolent, and in certain other localities between Sevastopol' and Balaclava. She separated out and defined saprotrophic fungi typical for the ecosystems she was studying. Altogether, from 349 samples, she isolated 1,147 fungal cultures. After their purification and identification, she was able to record 119 species and 3 varieties from 45 genera, 11 families and 7 orders of Archimycetes, Oomycetes, Zygomycetes and Deuteromycetes as saprotrophic fungi of the Black Sea coast. She also studied biofouling fungi of the Black Sea coast, forming on submerged metal frames from which she was able to isolate 120 fungal cultures.

In 1967, for family reasons, she returned to Moscow, where she began work at the Laboratory of Ecology & Sea Biofouling in the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, under the direction of Dr I.V. Starostin. During expeditions in 1968 and 1969, based at the Belomorskaya Biological Station of Moscow University, she continued to collect samples of water, mud and non-microscopic plants from Kandalaksha Bay on the White Sea, near the Velikaya Salma Straits. After processing those samples, 378 fungal cultures were isolated. In 1968, she collected specimens from similar ecosystems on the Barents Sea near Dal'niye Zelentsy village, from which 272 fungal cultures were isolated. In 1972, during comparative testing different dispersants on petroleum pellicles in the eastern part of the Barents Sea, near Tallinn, Artemchuk had an opportunity to take water samples at surface level and at depths of 1-3 m. From these samples she subsequently isolated 66 fungus cultures, taking the total number of fungus cultures isolated by her to 1983.

N.Y. Artemchuk worked enthusiastically with marine fungi of the USSR. But she always considered her main task was to prepare her thesis on Black Sea micro-organisms. For this, she worked on her extensive material, analysing the systematic composition of her fungi, describing several new species, and observing seasonal changes in taxonomic composition of populations. In carrying out her research, she also took into account numerous factors resulting in particular associations of saprotrophic fungi in different ecosystems. In 1973 she defended her thesis Fungi of Some Regions of the Black Sea Coast. At that point, her premature death at 39 prevented her from finishing her planned research on marine fungi. Thereafter her mother, a well-known expert on antibiotics, Dr N.K. Solovyova, undertook the noble task of summarizing her work on marine fungi of the USSR and preparing her material for publication.

In 1981, Artemchuk's monograph Fungi of the Seas of the USSR was published. It was the first serious work on marine fungi of the USSR, and contained valuable information about species diversity, taxonomic structure, and aspects of ecology and physiology. Using fungi of the Black Sea as a model, Artemchuk succeeded in determining general patterns characteristic of saprotrophic marine fungi. These included: predominance of deuteromycetes, localization of most species in sea-bed deposits, and increase of species diversity in autumn and winter and decrease of species diversity in summer. Using fungi isolated from White Sea water samples, Artemchuk examined the dependence of sea fungi on salinity and suggested that they were organisms with a moderate tolerance of saline conditions. In her manuscript, results of her experiments on salt-tolerance were presented. These demonstrated that most saprotrophic marine fungi are organisms with a broad range of salt tolerance. Her information on antagonistic properties, cellulose-decomposing capacity and use of carbohydrates by marine fungi, all included in her monograph, was of particular interest. From a mycological point of view, the most valuable parts of her work were the lists of the fungi she identified on the basis of cultures isolated from all the areas of sea she studied, and her descriptions of marine fungi new for science. From the waters of the Black Sea, Artemchuk described six species new for science from the genera Hyphochytrium, Leptolegnia, Chaetomium, Papularia, Diplodia and Emericellopsis. From the White Sea she described the new genera Elina (with two new species) and Lagenidiopsis (with one new species), and a new species of the genus Thraustochytrium. Her monograph Fungi of the Seas of the USSR was her life's main work.

Lists. Publications. Taxa. Kirk & Ansell form of name: N.J. Artemczuk.