Nikolai Gersevanov

Born Feb. 16 (28), 1879, in Tbilisi; died Jan. 20, 1950, in Moscow. Soviet scientist in the field of soil mechanics, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). Son of M. N. Gersevanov, a noted construction engineer and scientist.

In 1901, Gersevanov graduated from St. Petersburg’s Institute of Transportation and Communications Engineers. Beginning in 1923 he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Transportation and Communications Engineering. In 1931 he became the scientific director of the All-Union Institute of Building Foundations and head of the subdepartment of hydrotechnical structures at the Military Transport Academy. He was the founder of the Soviet school of soil mechanics and the author of numerous works on soil mechanics and applied mathematics. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1948. He was awarded two orders.