A geologist who helped design the Soviet uranium search
In 1943, he proposed concentrating scarce exploration resources on Central Asia rather than searching everywhere.
Dmitry Shcherbakov was a Soviet geologist, geochemist, geographer, and scientific organizer who studied Central Asia and rare metals. His Pamir and Central Asian expeditions helped develop metallogenic methods for predicting ore deposits, while wartime work directed geological knowledge toward strategic resources. In 1943 he joined the Uranium Commission, wrote a report assessing Soviet uranium prospects, and urged concentrating limited time and resources on exploration in Central Asia. That choice helped organize the uranium prospecting network needed by the nascent Soviet atomic project.
Career Timeline
- 1914Senior collector, Fergana radium expedition
- 1921–1930Researcher, Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces
- 1925–1930Head of the mineralogical-geochemical section, State Radium Institute
- 1928–1936Scientific head, Pamir and Central Asian expeditions
- 1930–1938Deputy director, Geochemical Institute and Institute of Geological Sciences
- 1942–1943Head, Caucasus expedition of the Academy of Sciences Institute of Geological Sciences
- 1943Member, Uranium Commission at the All-Union Institute of Mineral Resources
- 1953–1966Full member, Academy of Sciences of the USSR