2021-03-12 Fri

The National Bank of Ukraine issued 1000-hryvnia banknotes to improve cash flow and payments. The obverse side of this note features the great philosopher and natural scientist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945). He was known for his work in the fields of geochemistry, biochemistry, and radiogeology.

He is also known as the founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). He is most noted for his 1926 book The Biosphere in which he inadvertently worked to popularize Eduard Suess' 1885 term biosphere, by hypothesizing that life is the geological force that shapes the earth. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Vernadsky first popularized the concept of the noosphere and deepened the idea of the biosphere to the meaning largely recognized by today's scientific community. The word 'biosphere' was invented by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, whom Vernadsky met in 1911.

The National Library of Ukraine, the Tavrida National University in Crimea and many streets and avenues in Ukraine and Russia are named in honour of Vladimir Vernadsky.

Image Source: Wikpedia.org