Background
Boris Golitsyn was born on March 2, 1862, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Impire. He came from an old family of the nobility.
Ushakovskaya nab., 17/1, St. Petersburg, Russia, 197045
In 1887 Boris graduated from the hydrographic section of the Maritime Academy (now Kuznetsov Naval Academy).
4 Rue Blaise Pascal, 67081 Strasbourg, France
Boris went to study abroad, enrolling in the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University of Strasbourg. He graduated in 1890 and then returned to Russia.
Russian Federation
Boris Borisovich Golitsyn
Russian Federation
A portrait of Boris Golitsyn
Russian Federation
Golitsyn in youth
United Kingdom
In 1916 Golitsyn was made a foreign member of the Royal Society.
educator physicist scientist seismologist
Boris Golitsyn was born on March 2, 1862, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Impire. He came from an old family of the nobility.
In 1887 Boris graduated from the hydrographic section of the Maritime Academy (now Kuznetsov Naval Academy); but since he did not wish to serve in the fleet, he went to study abroad, enrolling in the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University of Strasbourg. He graduated in 1890 and then returned to Russia. In 1893 he presented to the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics his thesis, which received a negative review. Golitsyn was not permitted to defend his dissertation.
Golitsyn began to teach at Moscow University in 1891. At the beginning of 1894, he was entrusted with the management of the physical office of the Academy of Sciences. In 1897 he headed the Department of Experimental Physics at the Women's Medical Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1913 he was appointed a director of the Nikolaev Physical Observatory.
Before 1898 Golitsyn’s scientific research was concerned mainly with molecular physics. He examined the problem of critical temperature in great detail. Against the theory of Thomas Andrews, he advanced a new notion about conditions of quasi-equilibrium based on extremely precise experimental data. Beginning in 1899, Golitsyn started to occupy himself mainly with seismology and seismometry. He laid the foundations of scientific seismometry and developed an improved type of seismograph, one with a galvanometric register. In such a seismograph the pendulum is equipped with coils and oscillates in a field of permanent magnets. Under these conditions, an electric current is induced in the coils, the measurement of which permits the precise recording of seismic vibrations.
Through the efforts of Golitsyn, Russian seismometry occupied a leading place in world science at that time; and his seismographs were the prototypes for new apparatus for the study of earthquakes and mechanical vibrations, and for seismic prospecting for useful minerals.
When the world war of 1914-1918 began, the Military Meteorological Administration was created, at the head of which Golitsyn was put. During these years of the war, Golitsyn gave all his strength to the ministry and so undermined his health that a slight cold caused his death.
Golitsyn was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1908. He was a member and president of the International Seismic Association. In 1916 Golitsyn was made a foreign member of the Royal Society.
In May 1891 Boris married Maria Khitrovo.