Sorojon Mikhailovna Yusufova () (5 May 1910 – 15 May 1966) was a Tajik geologist and academician of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

era.

Biography

Born in

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

the daughter of Bukharan Jews, Yusufova graduated from

Samarkand State University Samarkand State University (SamSU) (; ) is a public university in Samarkand, Uzbekistan established by a government decree of the Government of Uzbekistan on 22 January 1927 in the city of Samarkand. The university is commonly known as Samarkand ...

in 1935. She continued her postgraduate study at the Soil Institute 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 ...

in the

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Communist ...

(SSR). In 1940 Yusufova began working at the Institute of Geology at the outpost of the Academy of Sciences and she continued in this position for three years. In 1946 she moved to the Institute of Geology at the SSR's branch of the Academy of Sciences of

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

, remaining there until 1948 and, after completing her doctoral studies in geology and mineralogy, she was named head of geologic studies related to coal and oil. Simultaneously, beginning in 1940 and continuing until her death, she worked in the Department of Mineralogy and Petrography of Tajik National University, where she became the first to lead the department when she was appointed to the post in 1948. Her main research interests were the geochemistry of

Celestine Celestine is a given name and a surname. People Given name * Pope Celestine I (died 432) * Pope Celestine II (died 1144) * Pope Celestine III (c. 1106–1198) * Pope Celestine IV (died 1241) * Pope Celestine V (1215–1296) * Antipope Cel ...

, the Tajik

mineral springs Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage underg ...

and the

Central Asian Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

soils. She was the first person in Tajikistan to study the

geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

of thermal springs. Yusufova was appointed a professor in 1950 and taught at the universities of

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

, Tajikistan as well as

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

, Uzbekistan. Her main sphere of research included the mineral properties, elemental composition and geochemistry of mineralogy of sedimentary rocks, such as clay and loam. In 1951 she was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR. In 1962 she became a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. She gave a detailed geochemical and mineralogical analysis of clay minerals in her textbook, published in 1964 (the first text published in the Tajik language).

Studying the loess of Tajikistan, I came to the conclusion about their alluvial origins, collected extensive material about their mineralogical composition, moisture capacity and subsidence properties, which was the basis for the conclusion about the engineering-geological features of loess rocks.

She died 15 May 1966 in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

Honors

* Yusufova was a member of the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet () was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These soviets were modeled after the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, establ ...

of the Tajik SSR * She was awarded the

Order of the Badge of Honor The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

and medals of the USSR. * In 1960, she was named a Distinguished Contributor to Science in Tajikistan. * The mining and geology technical center in Dushanbe bears Yusufova's name.

Selected publications

Yusufova authored the first textbook to be published in the Tajik language "Geology with elements of mineralogy and petrography" (1964). Among her writings are ''Mineralogical Peculiarities of Central Asia's Yellow Dust'' (

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, 1951) and ''Mineralogical Peculiarities of the

Loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

in the Vakhsh Valley'' (1985).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yusufova, Sorojon 1910 births 1966 deaths Tajikistani geologists Tajikistani women scientists Women geologists Soviet geologists Soviet women scientists People from Bukhara 20th-century Uzbekistani women 20th-century Tajikistani women Tajikistani Jews Academic staff of Tajik National University 20th-century Tajikistani scientists