Alexey Alekseevich Borisyak. 1872-1944

Alexey Alekseevich Borisyak, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Head of the Russian palaeontological school, hereditary mining geologist.
In 1896, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, worked for more than 35 years at GeolCom.
Founder of the School of Vertebrate Palaeontology. His main works were devoted to the study of facies, general palaeontology, study of the Jurassic molluscs, palaeontology of vertebrates and especially mammals. They were carried out at detailed bed-by-bed collections of organic remains and contributed to the creation of a biostratigraphic basis for the stratification of sedimentary deposits. The first full-time positions of palaeontologists at GeolCom were established in 1912, one of them was held by Borisyak. He was instructed to organize a palaeontological section. In 1930, went to work in the USSR Academy of Sciences, participated in the organization of the Palaeontological Institute, which he permanently led until his death. Founding member of the Palaeontological Society. Researcher of geology of the Donetsk basin, Crimea, Siberia. Comprehensively educated, he trained a galaxy of palaeontologists, whose work contributed to the successful development of this science. The book "Problems of Evolutionary Palaeontology", which became the scientific testament of this outstanding researcher, was published in 1947, after the death of Borisyak. The Stalin Prize (1943) was transferred to the Defence Fund.