Veber, Valerian Nikolaevich

Born Sept. 14 (26), 1871, in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 20, 1940, in Leningrad. Soviet geologist and paleontologist. Doctor of geologic and mineralogical sciences (1937); Honored Scientist and Technologist of the RSFSR (1939).

Veber graduated from the mining institute in St. Petersburg in 1897. In 1920 he became a professor at the Leningrad Mining Institute. From 1900 to 1940 he worked on the Geological Committee (later renamed All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Geological Prospecting). His major works deal with the study of geologic structure and the minerals of Middle Asia. He discovered deposits of coal, petroleum, lead, arsenic, and so forth. In 1925, Veber and his students made a geologic map of the mountain regions of Turkestan. His monograph on Cheleken Island is very significant. He wrote important works on the paleontology of trilobites. Veber is also known for his work in seismology: he studied the Akhalkalaki, Shemakha, and Andizhan earthquakes. Veber was the first in the Soviet Union to publish the course Field Geology (1923).