Career
He was a student of Alexander Fersman. In 1931, he led a team from the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences in the mineralogical examination of the Lovozero Massif. Shcherbinaite, a naturally-occurring mineral form of vanadium pentoxide, is named for him.
MAIK Nauka has deemed him an "outstanding" geochemist, and in 1998 sponsored a memorial lecture in his honor.