Ivan Rozhkov

Born Aug. 20 (Sept. 2), 1908, in the village of Ivonino, in what is now Mosal’sk Raion, Kaluga Oblast; died July 30, 1971, in the settlement of Dombarovskii, Orenburg Oblast; buried in Moscow. Soviet geologist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960). Member of the CPSU from 1940.

After graduating from the Leningrad Institute of Mines in 1933, Rozhkov worked at the Ural Gold Trust, becoming chief geologist in 1939. Between 1945 and 1957 he worked as chief geologist of the Central Board of the Gold Industry of the Ministry of Nonferrous Metallurgy of the USSR. From 1957 to 1964 he was chairman of the presidium of the Yakut branch of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and simultaneously director of the Institute of Geology of the same branch (from 1958). In 1964 he became director of the Central Scientific Research Mine Exploration Institute of Nonferrous, Rare, and Noble Metals of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR.

Rozhkov’s principal works dealt with the geology and methodology of prospecting for and exploring placers of gold, platinum, and diamonds and with the genesis of gold deposits. He developed a genetic classification of gold deposits.

Rozhkov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR twice (1949 and 1951), the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.