Biography
Boris Sokolov was born in Vyshny Volochyok in a family of a village feldsher (medic). In 1931 he moved from his home town to Leningrad and became an electrician apprentice. A blue-collar work experience was a pre-requisite for admission into the university; after a year of work Sokolov was allowed to enroll at the Department of Geology and Soil Sciences of the Leningrad University. He graduated with honors in 1937 and remained with the University faculty to complete postgraduate studies. Sokolov's early work concentrated on the stratigraphy of the Russian Platform, in particular the diagnostics of fossil Chaetetida corals for precise identification of carboniferous minerals.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II Sokolov was appointed to lead a Soviet field research company in China. After two years of field work in Chinese Tian Shan, the Turpan Depression and Tarim Basin (1941–1943) he returned to Soviet Central Asia to search petroleum deposits on the northern side of Tian Shan. In 1945 he returned to Leningrad to complete his postgraduate thesis on Chaetetida, based on his pre-war studies. In 1950 Sokolov published Chaetetida of the Carboniferous Period, followed by five reference volumes of Paleozoan Tables (1951–1955). These works earned him his doctorate; a revised edition, included in the 16-volume Foundations of Paleontology, was awarded the State Prize for 1967.
In the early 1950s Sokolov joined a group of geologists assigned with analysis of recent deep boring samples. Sokolov discovered what he believed was a formerly unknown geographical layer preceding the Cambrian, which he called Vend (Vendian Period). The name Vend appeared in his papers since 1950; in 1952 academician Alexander Vinogradov endorsed Sokolov's theory and Vend appeared on Soviet geological charts as an independent period.
In 1958 Sokolov accepted an invitation to join the newly formed Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences as a corresponding member, and moved to live to Novosibirsk. Together with Vladimir Saks (1911–1979) Sokolov created a new Siberian school of stratigraphy and paleontology, which survived into the 21st century as the Institute of Oil and Gas Geology. Sokolov continued production of geological references, but eventually concentrated on his theory of the transition from Vendian (Ediacaran) biota to Cambrian, which he believed was critical to our understanding of evolution. He coined the Russian term for Precambrian Paleontology (Палеонтология докембрия), which evolved into a separate branch of science.
Sokolov was elected full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1968, and headed the Department of Geology of the Academy from 1975 to 1987, the longest tenure since the establishment of the Department. He chaired the International Stratigraphic Commission and the International Paleontology Association since 1972, the national Paleontological Society since 1974. In 1998 Sokolov became the first geologist to be awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal.
Read more about this topic: Boris Sergeyevich Sokolov
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