Alexander Sobolev

Alexander Vladimirovich Sobolev (; born 23 March 1954) is a Russian- French geochemist, petrologist and mineralogist whose research focuses on the origin of mantle-derived magmas and their sources, using the composition of olivines, melt inclusions, physical chemistry and modelling.

Sobolev is a full member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (elected in 2016) He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2019 and a Geochemistry Fellow (2021) of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. In 2015 he became a senior member (now membre honoraire) of the Institut universitaire de France.

Sobolev is listed by the European Commission's CORDIS database as a corresponding principal investigator of the European Research Council Synergy project Monitoring Earth Evolution Through Time (MEET, 2020–2027).

Biography Sobolev graduated with distinction from Novosibirsk State University and has worked at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOKHI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Career and research A Physics Today news item about the (one-time) Wolfgang Paul Research Award programme lists Alexander V. Sobolev among the recipients and describes his work on mantle melting: "With a research focus on the origins of melts in Earth’s interior, Sobolev, a professor of geochemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry in Moscow, has developed new approaches for studying the composition and nature of microscopic amounts of melts that are enclosed in the crystals of the mineral olivine. Based on results obtained through this analysis, he has created theories about the nature of melting and the composition of materials deep in Earth’s interior". The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation lists him in its network and records him as a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award (1999) and the Wolfgang Paul Research Award programme (2001).

According to Google Scholar as of January 4, 2026, Alexander Sobolev's papers have been cited more than 17,300 times in the scientific literature.

Honours and awards Selected honours documented by academic societies and major research organisations include: Geochemistry Fellow (2021), Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry. Humboldt Research Award (1999) and Wolfgang Paul Research Award (2001), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Selected works