13 Facts About Alexander Fersman

Alexander Evgenyevich Fersman was a prominent Soviet Russian geochemist and mineralogist, and a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Alexander Fersman began exploring the countryside for minerals and collecting crystals while a young boy at his family's summer estate in Crimea.

In 1903, the senior Fersman's duties as an officer in the army of the Tsar took the family to Moscow, where Alexander enrolled in the University of Moscow.

In 1910, Alexander Fersman returned to Russia, where he began his administrative and teaching career.

Alexander Fersman became curator of mineralogy at the Russian Academy of Science's Mineralogical Museum in St Petersburg, and the museum's director in 1919, following his election as an Academician.

Alexander Fersman became a professor at the People's University in Moscow.

Alexander Fersman participated in an Academy of Science project to catalogue Russia's natural resources, and starting in 1915, travelled throughout Russia to assess mineral deposits.

Alexander Fersman was the General Secretary of the Presidium and played an important role in organizing the convention.

Alexander Fersman died on 20 May 1945, in the Black Sea town of Sochi, where he had gone to recover from exhaustion.

Alexander Fersman wrote more than 1,500 articles and publications on crystallography, mineralogy, geology, chemistry, geochemistry, geography, aerial photography, astronomy, philosophy, art, archeology, soil science, and biology.

Alexander Fersman was a great popularizer of science in Russia.

Alexander Fersman was awarded the Lenin Prize, USSR State Prize, Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London, and Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

Alexander Fersman's name was given to the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, the minerals fersmite and fersmanite, a crater on the Moon, the research vessel RV Geolog Fersman, and streets in multiple Russian cities, including Moscow, Monchegorsk, and Apatity.