Andrey Kapitsa

Andrey Kapitsa
Born
Andrey Petrovich Kapitsa
Андрей Петрович Капица

(1931-07-09)9 July 1931
Cambridge, England
Died2 August 2011(2011-08-02) (aged 80)
Moscow, Russia
NationalityRussian
CitizenshipRussia
Alma materMSU Faculty of Geography
Known fordiscovery of the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica, Lake Vostok
AwardsUSSR State Prize (1971), Dmitry Anuchin Prize (1972), Honorary Scientist of Russia[1][2]
Scientific career
Fieldsgeography
InstitutionsMSU Faculty of Geography (dean in 1965–1970), RAS

Andrey Petrovich Kapitsa (Russian: Андре́й Петро́вич Капи́ца; 9 July 1931 – 2 August 2011) was a Soviet and Russian geographer and Antarctic explorer, discoverer of Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica.[3] He was a member of the Kapitsa family, a scientific dynasty in Russia.

Kapitsa was the first to suggest the existence of Lake Vostok in the region of Vostok Station in Antarctica, based on seismic soundings of the thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet. These measures were obtained during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions, in four of which Kapitsa participated.[4] The discovery of Lake Vostok was one of the last major geographic discoveries.[1][3]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference rgs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ УКАЗ Президента РФ от 21 September 2002 N 1015 "О НАГРАЖДЕНИИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫМИ НАГРАДАМИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ" Archived 26 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine Kremlin.ru
  3. ^ a b Скончался Андрей Капица, первооткрыватель озера Восток в Антарктике RIAN (in Russian)
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference lenta was invoked but never defined (see the help page).