Sofia Viktorovna Semikhatova

Sofia Viktorovna Semikhatova (1889 to 1973) was a Soviet geologist and paleontologist described as a pioneer and developer in some of the most prominent petroleum-bearing regions of her country. Born in St. Petersburg, she studied law before turning to the natural sciences at the Moscow Highest Women's Courses, and she pursued a geological career under Y. V. Samoilov, working from 1921 at the Geological Committee. She later worked at the Oil Institute, the Paleontological Institute and the Moscow Oil Institute, and from 1953 until her death at the All-Union Scientific Research Geological Oil Institute. Her studies of Carboniferous brachiopods led her to separate the Bashkirian Stage into horizons, and her work on the Lower Carboniferous of the Volga-Ural area bore on the regularities of gas and oil deposits. She published ninety works and, though she never taught in higher educational establishments, prepared young scientists for geology.