Subbotin, Serafim

Subbotin, Serafim [Субботін, Серафим], b 3 May 1906 in Kazan, Russia, d 16 January 1976 in Kyiv. Geophysicist; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1961. A graduate of Kazan University (1931), he worked for the Ukrainian Geological Administration (1931–40), and as a researcher at the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv (1944–5) and Lviv (1945–50) and at the Institute of the Geology of Useful Minerals of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1951–60; see Institute of the Geology and Geochemistry of Fossil Fuels of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR) in Lviv. From 1960 until his death he directed the Institute of Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv. He also taught at the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute, Lviv University, and the Lviv Polytechnical Institute. His research included studies of the forces responsible for tectonic movements, gravimetry, and the structure of the earth’s core and its outer mantle. He developed a new theory of tectogenesis and made key contributions to the geophysical knowledge of Ukraine. The Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is now named in his honor.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]