Prof. Dr. Vladimir S. Balitsky

Head Synthesis and Modification Minerals Laboratory
Institute of Experimental Mineralogy
Russian Academy of Sciences
Chernogolovka, IEM RAS, Moscow District, 142432, Russia
Tel./ Fax: +7 (096) 52 49 687 or +7 (096) 52 44 425
e-mail: bavlad@iem.ac.ru

Vladimir S. Balitsky graduated the Moscow Institute of Non-ferrous Metals and Gold in 1954. He worked at Geological Organizations of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, exploring mineralogy and geochemistry of ore deposits in the Caucasus and Middle Asia. Upon completion of the study he earned his Candidate degree (PhD) in 1962 on the topic "Composition and Variability of Pb-Zn and Cu ores in North-West Caucasus deposits". Afterwards he had been working for 18 years at All-Union (All-Russian by now) Scientific-Research Institute for Raw Mineral Synthesis (Alexandrov, Vladimir district) as a head of laboratory and then as a head of department of the experimental mineralogy. The most considerable investigations in these years were devoted to experimental mineralogy, crystallography and high temperature chemistry of silica, mercury, zinc, cadmium, aluminum and other metals. He received his Doctoral degree in 1971. The title of his thesis is "Experimental study of conditions of quartz crystal growth processes". For 21 years V.S. Balitsky is head of the Synthesis and Modification Mineral Lab at the Institute of Experimental Mineralogy Russian Academy of Sciences (Chernogolovka, Moscow district). He has recently worked out theoretical approaches, procedures and equipment for growth of different minerals from hydrothermal solutions under low (<250 °C) and high temperature (500-900 °C) conditions. This made it possible to synthesize and study Ge-containing quartz (GeO2 up to 39 wt.%), germanium dioxide with quartz structure, topaz, malachite, turquoise, phosphorous-bearing pink quartz, bi-colored amethyst-citrine quartz (ametrine), Ni-bearing pink quartz, etc. In 2000 V.S. Balitsky received his Professorship in Mineralogy and Crystallography. He has totally published more than 300 works, including 6 books and 70 domestic and international patents. His scientific achievement in the field of synthesis and enhancement of gemstones were marked by the State Prize of USSR (1979) and recently (1998) by Fersman's Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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