Vladimir Vernadsky

Not much is known about the personal life of Vladimir except that he was married to Natalya. The couple had two children, a son George Vernadsky and daughter Anna Vernadskaya.

The eminent scientist breathed his last on January 6, 1945 in Moscow.

Several educational institutes in Ukraine and Moscow have honoured this ingenious scientist; the ‘Tavrida National University’ has named an avenue in their campus after Vladimir and he is also the eponym of a street in Moscow.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was born to parents, Anna and Ivan Vernadsky, of Ukrainian Cossacks ancestry in the Saint Petersburg city of Russia, on March 12, 1863. His father was a teacher of political economy at the University of Moscow, before the family shifted from Kiev to Saint Petersburg; his mother belonged to the lower Russian nobility.

Vladimir received his early education from Ukraine but after returning to Russia he studied at the ‘Saint Petersburg Grammar School’. He pursued higher education from ‘St. Petersburg University’ and was awarded a degree by the ‘Department of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Faculty’ in 1885.

Always interested in natural sciences he decided to pursue a specialization in mineralogy under the renowned Vasily Vasili'evich Dokuchaev who was a pioneer in the field of soil science.

While working on his doctoral dissertation, Vernadsky was introduced to crystallography. He initially wanted to work with crystallographer Arcangelo Scacchi, but the latter’s fragile mental condition compelled him to move to Germany, where he worked on his thesis under the guidance of mineralogist Paul Groth, who was studying the physical properties of crystals.

It was in Germany that he met mathematician Leonhard Sohncke who was himself conducting research on crystallization. Having worked with Sohncke and Groth, Vladimir successfully completed his doctorate.

After completion of his doctoral studies, Vernadsky embarked on his professional career as a research assistant in a mineralogy laboratory. Studying aluminosilicates he chronicled their structure and chemical composition.

He then studied the distribution and concentration of isotopes of different elements in different layers of the Earth’s crust. He collected detailed data and was involved in studies of how various geological forces affect formation of compounds in the Earth crust.

Vladimir is best-known for his work on ‘Noosphere’ and biogeochemistry. His theory on how the three spheres on Earth, geosphere, biosphere and the sphere of cognizance, evolve and progress hand in hand, was a benchmark in the field of environmental sciences.