Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky is a scientist and philosopher, naturalist, founder of geochemistry, biogeochemistry and radiogeology, the doctrine of the biosphere, noosphere, cosmism.

Place of Birth, Education

He was born on March 12, 1863 in St. Petersburg in the family of an economist. He spent his childhood in Kharkiv and Poltava, often visited Kyiv.

In 1873, he began to study at the Kharkiv gymnasium.

After the family returned to St. Petersburg in 1876, he entered the First St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium.

In 1885 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.

From 1888 to 1890 he studied abroad – in Italy, France and Germany.

Career

In 1885 – 1890 he was the keeper of the Mineralogical Cabinet of St. Petersburg University.

In 1890, he became a private assistant professor at the Department of Crystallography and Mineralogy of the Imperial Moscow University.

In 1897, Vernadsky defended his doctoral dissertation, and from 1898 he worked as a professor of mineralogy at Moscow University. He was the author of training courses and textbooks on mineralogy and crystallography.

Since 1909 he was an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1911, he resigned in solidarity with professors dismissed for political reasons.

In June 1917, he moved to Ukraine.

On October 27, 1918, he became one of the founders and the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (UAS). During this period, he taught a course in geochemistry at the University of Kyiv.

In 1919, he settled in Simferopol, where he worked as a professor, and since 1920 – as a rector of the Taurida University.

On July 14, 1921, Vernadsky was arrested and sent to prison on Shpalernaya Street in Petrograd, but was later released.

In the same year, he returned to Petrograd, where he headed the Radium Institute.

In 1922 – 1926 he was in France. After returning to Leningrad, he published the monographs “Biosphere” and “Essays on Geochemistry”, created the Department of Living Matter at the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and headed the Commission for the Study of Heavy Water.

In 1935, he moved to Moscow, where he joined the creation of a number of scientific commissions and worked on issues related to the possibility of life in space.

During the political repressions, he voluntarily left all administrative positions so as not to participate in the “purges”, and remained only a scientific consultant. Despite this, he was elected a member of the geological-geographical, chemical and physical-mathematical departments of the Academy of Sciences.

During his lifetime, he published more than 400 scientific papers, became the founder of biogeochemistry and made a significant contribution to the development of geochemistry.

From 1927 until his death, he headed the Biogeochemical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

During the Second World War, he was evacuated to the village of Borovo in the Kokchetav region.

In 1944, he published his last work – “A Few Words about the Noosphere”.

Death/Fatalities

On December 25, 1944, he suffered a stroke, after which his health deteriorated sharply.

He passed away on January 6, 1945 in Moscow.

Marital Status

In 1886, he married Natalia Starytska, with whom he lived for more than 56 years. The couple had two children.

Vladimir Vernadsky: interesting facts

Among the interesting facts about Vernadsky:

• on the paternal side, the family came from the Zaporozhian Cossacks;
• loved poetry and wrote poetry himself;
• developed the concept of the noosphere.
• in matters of faith he was an agnostic, at the same time he was interested in esoteric teachings;
• before the revolution, he was actively engaged in public activities, defending liberal views;
• believed that in the future humanity would be ruled not by the strongest, but by the smartest – he called it the “dictatorship of reason”.
• All his life he was afraid of the stroke that once struck his father.