Sergei Bubnov

Born July 15 (27), 1888, in St. Petersburg; died Nov. 15, 1957, in Berlin. German geologist; member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1949).

In 1906, together with his family, Bubnov moved from Russia to Germany, and he graduated from the University of Freiburg in 1910. He was a professor at the universities of Greifswald (1929-50) and Berlin (from 1950). He was director of the Institute of Geotectonics (from 1950). His main research has been on regional and general tectonics. Bubnov developed an original classification of the fundamental structural elements of the earth’s crust (1923 and later) and a classification of tectonic movements (in 1948). One of the main themes of Bubnov’s theoretical works is the cyclical nature of the earth’s development. He has also written works on the geological structure of northeastern Germany, the fauna of the Triassic strata of the eastern Alps, and the coal deposits of Germany. Bubnov compiled paleogeographic maps of Europe. He was awarded the State Prize of the German Democratic Republic in 1953.