Ivan Bashilov

Born Nov. 17 (29), 1892; died Aug. 20, 1953. Soviet technological chemist and metallurgist; one of the founders of the radium and rare-element industry in the USSR. Professor (1931) and doctor of technological sciences (1935). In 1920–21, while head of an experimental radium plant, Bashilov worked out an original technological scheme for extracting radium, uranium, and vanadium from local raw materials, thanks to which he and V. G. Khlopin obtained the first sample of radium at the end of 1921. Subsequently, Bashilov carried out much successful work in the area of the technology of radium and of rare elements and in the organization of their production. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1948.