Chernov, Aleksandr

Chernov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich 

Born July 11 (23), 1877, in Solikamsk; died Jan. 23,1963, in Syktyvkar. Soviet geologist and paleontologist. Hero of Socialist Labor (1957). Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1946).

Chernov graduated from Moscow University in 1903. From 1907 to 1909 he was a member of P. K. Kozlov’s expedition to Mongolia and Szechwan. From 1909 to 1934 he taught at higher educational institutions in Moscow; he became a professor in 1917. Beginning in 1935, he worked in various institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Chernov’s main works dealt with the geology and minerals of the Central and Northern Urals, the Pai-khoi mountains, and the Pechora region. Chernov provided theoretical substantiation for the existence of the Pechora Coal Basin and studied the structure of the Ukhta Oil-bearing Region. He collected extensive paleontological material, which helped establish the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic of the western slopes of the Northern Urals and of the Pai-khoi.

Chernov was awarded the A. P. Karpinskii Gold Medal (1952). He received two Orders of Lenin and two other orders, as well as various medals. A mountain ridge in the Komi ASSR has been named in honor of Chernov.

REFERENCE

Varsanofeva, V. A. “Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Chernov.” Biull. Mosk. ob-va ispytateleiprirody: Old. geol., 1963, vol. 38, issue 3.