Feb 27 Dr Nina Vedeneyeva (1882-1955) Born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire), Nina Vedeneyeva was a preeminent crystallographer. Her accolades include the Stalin Prize, the Order of Lenin, and several other medals awarded by the Soviet Union.
Vedeneyeva began her studies at the Liège Polytechnical School in Belgium but returned to Russia after only 1 year. After graduating from the chemistry department of the Bestuzhev Courses, a top women’s university, in 1913, she began to teach at the Second State University and the Institute of Fine Chemical Technology, both in Moscow.
She married a man, whom she later divorced, and later in life, she fell in love with the famed Russian lesbian poet Sophia Parnok. Over the course of their relationship, which lasted until Parnok’s death in 1933, Parnok wrote 32 poems inspired by Vedeneyeva.
Vedeneyeva earned her doctorate in physics and mathematics in 1937 and was hired to head the Optical Sector of the Institute of Geological Sciences in 1941. There, she worked on problems of camouflage for the Red Army and developed a method of analyzing optical properties of materials while in the field.
In 1945, Vedeneyeva founded the Laboratory of Crystal Optics at the Institute of Crystallography, part of the USSR Academy of Sciences; she headed the laboratory until her death in 1955. Among other contributions, her research proved that the coloration of different types of quartz is due to lattice defects.
