Leonid Sorokin

Born July 31 (Aug. 12), 1886, in Borisoglebsk, now in Voronezh Oblast; died Sept. 24, 1954, in Moscow. Soviet astronomer and specialist in gravimetry. Sorokin graduated from Moscow University in 1911. He joined the university’s staff in 1921 and became a professor at the university in 1932. From 1942 to 1952 he was a professor at the Moscow Petroleum Institute.

Sorokin was one of the first in the USSR to apply gravimetric methods to prospecting for oil deposits. He proposed several methods for the interpretation of gravity anomalies. Sorokin carried out gravimetric surveys at sea. He invented a lightweight pendulum device, perfected the optical counter, developed instruments for rapid determinations of the force of gravity, and helped to design gravimeters.

Sorokin was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1951.