Irina Mitrofanovna Pokrovskaya. 1902-1970

Irina Mitrofanovna Pokrovskaya, geologist, major palaeontologist-biostratigrapher.
In 1928, she graduated from the Leningrad State University.
Employee of TsNIGRI-VSEGEI since 1934.
Expert in the Quaternary geology, organizer and head of the Palynological Laboratory, one of the founders of the national palaeontology school. One of the first in the USSR applied the spore-pollen analysis method for stratigraphic division of the Cenozoic deposits of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. She spent the war years in the Urals, studying the Mesozoic and Cenozoic stratigraphy, associated with a number of valuable minerals. One of the editors of the first practical guide to palynology “Pollen analysis” (1950) translated into foreign languages. She was engaged in research of reference Mesozoic and Cenozoic sections in the West Siberian Lowland, Turgai Plain, Bashkir Urals, Baltic States, and Ukraine. Her last scientific work was the three-volume monograph “Palaeopalynology”. Professor of the Leningrad State University. Laureate of the USSR State Prize. Member of the defence of Leningrad (1941–1942).