Alexei Vasilievich Shubnikov (; 29March 1887 – 27April 1970) was a Soviet crystallographer and mathematician. Shubnikov was the founding director of the Institute of Crystallography (named after him following his death) of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

in Moscow. Shubnikov pioneered Russian crystallography and its application.

Life

Career

In 1912 Shubnikov graduated from the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

. From 1920 to 1925 he was a professor at the Ural Mining Institute,

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

. In 1925, at the invitation of the well-known mineralogist and geologist

Alexander Fersman Alexander Evgenyevich Fersman (; 8 November 1883 – 20 May 1945) was a prominent Soviet Union, Soviet Russian geochemist and mineralogist, and a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1919–1945). Early life and education Fersman was bor ...

, he went to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, where he founded a laboratory of crystallography and laid the foundations of the Soviet school of theoretical and applied crystallography and related fields. From 1927 to 1929 he visited research institutions in Norway and Germany and worked temporarily with Friedrich Rinne. In 1934 he received a doctorate in the field of geological sciences. As part of a restructuring in the Academy of Sciences, he moved to Moscow with his laboratory in 1934. With the beginning of the German-Soviet war in 1941 it was transferred to the Sverdlovsk region, where research work on

piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoel ...

continued. In 1943 he returned to Moscow with his laboratory, and in 1944 it was transformed into the Institute of Crystallography by a decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. In 1953 he founded the Department of Crystal Physics at the Physics Faculty of Lomonosov University and was a professor there until 1968. He served as director of the academy's Institute for Crystallography until 1962. Shubnikov was a corresponding member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

from 1933, and a full member and academician from 1953. Shubnikov was a co-founder of the

International Union of Crystallography The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) is an organisation devoted to the international promotion and coordination of the science of crystallography. The IUCr is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Objectives T ...

. Shubnikov was a foreign member of the mineralogical societies of Great Britain and of France. He is known for his research in the 1950s on the Shubnikov groups named after him, with many applications in

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

and

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state phy ...

, especially in the fields of

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, ...

and

ferroelectricity In physics and materials science, ferroelectricity is a characteristic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. All ferroelectrics are also piezoel ...

. These groups were introduced by Heinrich Heesch in 1929 and are therefore also called Heesch-Shubnikov groups today.

Works

Shubnikov was the author of more than 250 scientific publications. His main works are devoted to the theory of

symmetry Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is Invariant (mathematics), invariant und ...

, the theory of

crystal growth Crystal growth is a major stage of a crystallization, crystallization process, and consists of the addition of new atoms, ions, or polymer strings into the characteristic arrangement of the crystalline lattice. The growth typically follows an ini ...

, and the physical properties of crystals. He was the first to draw attention to piezoelectric textures, which predicted the possibility of visual observation of atoms and molecules when monochromatic rays pass through two superimposed crystal rasters, which has found application in the technique of modern

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

. Having developed the doctrine of antisymmetry, he deduced the 58 crystallographic

point group In geometry, a point group is a group (mathematics), mathematical group of symmetry operations (isometry, isometries in a Euclidean space) that have a Fixed point (mathematics), fixed point in common. The Origin (mathematics), coordinate origin o ...

s of antisymmetry (Shubnikov groups). Selected works available in English: * On the works of Pierre Curie on Symmetry. In: Usp. fiz. Nauk. Vol. 59, 1956, pp. 591–602. (Original Russian, English version 1988) * Antisymmetry of textures. In: Soviet Physics Crystall. Vol. 3, No. 3, 1958, pp. 269–273. (Original Russian, English version 1988) * Symmetry of similarity. In: Soviet Physics Crystall. Vol. 5, No. 4, 1961, pp. 469–476. (Original Russian, English version 1988) * Autobiographical Data and Personal Reminiscences, In: P.P. Ewald (Ed.): Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction, Conference Proc., 25–31 July 1962, Munich, Germany * '' Colored Symmetry'' (1964) with N.V. Belov. This book contains the first translation into English of Shubnikov's 1951 work ''Symmetry and antisymmetry of finite figures'' which opened up the field of

antisymmetry In linguistics, antisymmetry, is a theory of syntax described in Richard S. Kayne's 1994 book ''The Antisymmetry of Syntax''. Building upon X-bar theory, it proposes a universal, fundamental word order for phrases (Branching (linguistics), branchin ...

in magnetic structures. * '' Symmetry in Science and Art'' (1974) with V.A. Koptsik with extensive coverage of polychromatic symmetry (Original in Russian published by Nauka, Moscow 1972.)

Honours and awards

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(1945, 1962) * Stalin Prize for his monograph on piezoelectric textures (1947), and for the creation of equipment and technology for the production of rubies (1950) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1953, 1967) *

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1967)

Life

Career

Works

Honours and awards

References

Further reading