Mikhail Somov

File:Mm somov at mirnyy 1956.jpg

Mikhail Somov at Mirny Station, Antarctica in 1956.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Somov (Russian: Михаил Михайлович Сомов) (7 April, 1908, Moscow - 30 December, 1973, Leningrad) was a Soviet oceanologist, polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences (1954).

Mikhail Somov graduated from the Moscow Hydrometeorological Institute in 1937. In 1939, he was appointed senior researcher at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. In 1950-1951, Mikhail Somov headed a drift-ice station North Pole-2. In 1955-1957, he became a leader of the first Soviet Antarctic Expedition. Mikhail Somov was also the first Soviet delegate to the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.

A glacier in East Antarctica (Queen Maud Land) bears Mikhail Somov's name. He also appeared on a two-ruble bank note.

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (1951)
• Three Orders of Lenin
• Vega medal (from the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography) (1957)
• Patroness Golden medal (from the Royal Geographical Society) (1961)

External links

• Михаил Михайлович Сомов (1908 - 1973) (in Russian)