Gediminas Motuza-Matuzevičius (born 24 August 1946 in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

) is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n geologist and author of geology textbooks. He is currently professor in the Faculty of the Natural Sciences at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

and honorary professor of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

. Motuza was born to a Lithuanian–

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n family of a painter and a linguist. After graduating from high school in 1963, he earned his A.B. degree from Vilnius University, Faculty of Natural Science in 1968. He started his career at the Institute of Mathematics and Cybernetics of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...

as an engineer-geologist. From 1969 to 1973 he studied for a PhD degree at the Institute for Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements in Moscow, where he defended his dissertation ''East Transbaikal Ore Deposit Location Pattern Study Based on Mathematical Statistics Methods''. During this period he worked in the Pamir and

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

, and in the

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

area. Between 1982 and 1984, Motuza worked as a consultant for the Mozambique National Academy of Sciences. In 1984, he joined the Lithuanian Institute of Geology and Geography. In 1990 he was elected head of the Lithuanian Geological Society. Since 2003 he has been lecturing at the Department of Geology and Mineralogy of Vilnius University. Motuza took part in a variety of governmental missions, including delineation of the state border between Lithuania, Russia and Latvia. He discovered the Mizarai crater in Lithuania and identified the Vepriai crater in Lithuania and the Dobele crater in Latvia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motuza, Gediminas 1946 births Living people Lithuanian geologists Scientists from Vilnius Vilnius University alumni Academic staff of Vilnius University Soviet geologists