Zhardetsky [Jardetzky] Vencheslav (Vyacheslav) Sigismundovich General data:
16.04.1896 - 21.10.1962
Place of birth: Odessa city, Novorossian Governor General, Russian Empire (now Odessa city, Odessa region, Ukraine)
Studied in: Imperial Novorossian University, Odessa city, Russian Empire (since 2000 I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Ukraine) (1913-1917);
Key interests: celestial mechanics, geodynamics, Earth's rotation, instruments and devices, astronomy, geodesy, theoretical physics, geophysics, seismology
Biography:
He was born on 3 (according to the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar for 16) in April 1896 in the Odessa city of Novorossian Governor-General of the Russian Empire (now Odessa city, Odessa region, Ukraine), in the family of the Polish political figure Sigismund Zhardetsky and Maria Kudryavtseva.
Ventslav's childhood took place in Odesa and in the Kosko village near Yuzhepopol (Podillya province, now the Yosyivivka village of Vradievsk district of the Kirovograd region of Ukraine).
Since childhood the future scientist was engaged in precise science and music, in particular playing the piano.
During 1905-1913 he studied at the Rishelev high school (Odesa city), which he graduated with a silver medal. In 1913 he entered the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial Novorossian University. Studying at the second course, in 1915, he published an article on tables for solving cubic equations. At the request of O.Ya. Orlova Venscheslav was trained in labor competition at the Pulkovo Observatory under the direction of AA Belopolsky. In the summer of 1916, Vensslav went to Pulkovo and took part in the processing of 25 spectrographs of the classical star variable (Cepheids) η Eagle, which were received by A. A. Belopolsky during the two previous years - one year later the results of student studies were published in 1917. In 1917 he graduated from the University with a degree in the 1st degree and was left to prepare for a professorial rank, while working in the Odessa Astranomical Observatory. During June-October 1917 in the service of the Russian branch of the Red Cross.
In April 1918 Zhardetsky conducted a comparison of chronometers, and in January-February 1919 - measurements of sextant ships of the Black Sea Fleet, and, as indicated in the report, "a special
periodicity of corrections, detailed study failed, because the sexstans were hurriedly selected ".
In 1919, having received an assistant position at the Pulkovo Observatory, he traveled to Petrograd.
One of the first scientific works of the scientist on astronomy was devoted to the spectrum of the Vega star, published in 1919. Also published in the magazines "The News of the Nikolay Main Astronomical Observatory" (Pulcovo).
When the Bolsheviks arrived in Odessa city in 1918 he fled to the Volunteer Army where he worked as a nurse, assistant to the head of the Red Cross and the head of the advanced dressing train.
In 1920, on vacation in Odessa city, emigrated to Yugoslavia. In Belgrade City he worked under the auspices of Milutin Milankovich. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Belgrade City. Becoming subsequently a member of the board of this institute, he participated in the compilation and preparation for the publication of 2 issues of "Materials for the bibliography of Russian scientific works abroad." Since 1926 he worked as an associate professor, and since 1929 he became an extraordinary professor after in 1929, under the direction of A. D. Bilyamovich, he wrote and defended his doctoral dissertation, having received a Ph.D. degree (according to some data it was protected in 1923).
In Belgrade City, the scientific research of V. S. Zhardetsky successfully developed, numerous publications appeared: in the 1920s - 15, in the 1930s - 41. They were published not only in Serbian but also in German, Austrian, French, Czech, Polish and Swiss periodicals. In the late 1920's V. S. Zhardetsky began to create the original theory of zonal rotation of the Earth, which then perfected throughout life. The scientist believed that this mechanism could explain the drift of the continents, noticed by Francis Bacon, but was analyzed on a scientific basis by the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener only after 300 years, in 1912.
In 1939 he became an ordinary professor at the Belgrade University. During the Second World War, with the occupation of the city by the Germans, left the university department and conducted scientific research at home. He was working on a conceived book on dynamics, which, unfortunately, remained incomplete.
After the Second World War, he moved to Graz in the Austrian Republic. Here during 1946-1947 the scientist served as Director of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy. During 1947-1949, he lectured on geophysics at the Graz Technical College.
In 1949 he emigrated to the United States, New York. He worked at the Lamont Geological Observatory at Columbia University in 1949-1952 as a freelance researcher. Here he studied wave propagation and seismology. In addition, since 1951 and before retirement, the scientist was also a professor of mechanics at the Mechanical College.
Here he became a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts, the American Mathematical Society, the American Geodesic Union.
For the last four years, a scientist, as a publisher, translator of the American Geophysical Union, worked on a project aimed at establishing close international relations in the field of geological sciences. This project was subsidized by the National Research Council and the American Academy.
Scientist died October 21, 1962 in the Elkins city of West Virginia.
The field of scientific work of the scientist is heavenly mechanics, geodesy, geophysics and spectrography of stars and theoretical physics, seismology and geodynamics. The most popular branch was the theory of zonal rotation of the Earth.
Main publications:
1. Жардецкий В. С. Гидромеханика.- Белград, 1931
2. Жардецкий В. С. Математические исследования эволюции Земли.-Белград, 1935(французский)
3. Жардецкий В. С. Теоретическая физика.-Белград, 1940
4. Жардецький В. С. Розповсюдження хвиль в тонких прошарках, 1955
Sources:
1 Небесная и земная механика одессита Венчеслава Жардецкого /Ю. И. Блох, И. Э. Рикун//Геофизический журнал № 6, Т. 35, 2013 -С.190-196
2 Літнарович Р.М. Українські астрономи. За матеріалами Вікіпедії станом на 10.06.2012 р. Рівне, 2012.-258с.-С.103-106
3 uk.wikipedia.org
4 Предварительный поисковый список астрономов, покинувших Россию в конце XIX - первой половине ХХ вв. /М.Ю. Сорокина, Г.А., Савина, Ю.В.Щепанская.- проект "Российское научное зарубежье: биобиблиографический словарь" -2009.-С.2-3
