Zhemchuzhnikov, Iurii Apollonovich

Born Apr. 26 (May 8), 1885, in Samara, present-day Kuibyshev; died Jan. 9, 1957, in Leningrad. Soviet geologist, specializing in geology and coal petrography. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946).

Zhemchuzhnikov graduated from the Mining Institute in Petrograd in 1915 and in 1920 began teaching there. From 1920 to 1941 he worked with the Geological Committee and at the Ail-Union Geological Scientific Research Institute. In 1930 he became a professor at the Leningrad Mining Institute. He introduced and, with his students, developed the principles for comparing coal beds on the basis of the spore species contained in them. He also studied the lithology of coal-bearing strata and conditions for the formation of coal beds and helped develop the theory of facies. The Atlas of the Microstructure of Coals of the USSR (1937) and the anthology Cross Bedding and Its Geological Interpretation (1940) were prepared under his direction. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.