Vernadsky V.I., (1863-1945), chemist

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
VERNADSKY Vladimir Ivanovich (1863, St. Petersburg - 1945), chemist, mineralogist and crystallographer, Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1912), the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917), and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1925), Member (1919) and first President (1919-21) of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petersburg University in 1885, worked as the curator of the University's Mineralogical Museum in 1886-88. A member of the students' circles. Contracted lecturer (1890) and Professor (1898-1911) at Moscow University. Vernadsky was one of the founders and leaders of the Union of Liberation (1904), and the Constitutional and Democratic Party (Member of its Central Committee in 1905-17). Member of State Assembly, elected from the academic assembly (1906, 1908-11, 1915-17). After the February Revolution of 1917, he was elected Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in August - October 1917, was appointed Provisional Government's Deputy Minister for the People's Education. After 1917, he withdrew from politics. From 1914, he worked as Director of the Geological and Mineralogical Museum. Founder and first chairman of the Russian Commission for the Exploration of Natural Productive Forces (1915-30). Founder and director of the Radium Institute (1922-39), the Biogeochemical Laboratory (from 1926; today the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Science). Founder of geochemistry, genetic mineralogy, and biogeochemistry; developed radiogeological and radiochemical research; paid exclusive attention to ecological problems. Author of fundamental works on the philosophical aspects of natural science. In 1943, Vernadsky was awarded the Stalin Prize. Vernadsky lived at 2/1 Leitenanta Schmidta Embankment (memorial plaque installed), and in Petersburg University's main building. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR instituted the Vernadsky Prize (1945) and the Vernadsky Golden Medal (1963).

References: Баландин Р. К. Вернадский: жизнь, мысль, бессмертие. 2-е изд., доп. М., 1988; Гумилевский Л. И. Вернадский. 3-е изд. М., 1988; Стрекопытов С. П. Академик В. И. Вернадский в Петербурге - Петрограде - Ленинграде // Персонажи российской истории: (история и современность): Тез. ... конф. СПб., 1996. С. 211-213.

O. N. Ansberg. Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich
Vernadsky Vladimir Ivanovich
Leitenanta Schmidta Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1/2
Гумилевский Л. И. Вернадский. 3-е изд. М., 1988
Баландин Р. К. Вернадский: жизнь, мысль, бессмертие. 2-е изд., доп. М., 1988
Стрекопытов С.П. Академик В.И. Вернадский в Петербурге - Петрограде - Ленинграде // Персонажи российской истории: (история и современность): Тез. .... конф. СПб., 1996 Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
State University, St. Petersburg
February Revolution of 1917
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Public Education
Khlopin Radium Institute