Jan Czerski

Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski, also known as Ivan Dementievich Chersky or Yan Dominikovich Chersky (; – ), was a Polish, Belarusian, and Russian paleontologist, osteologist, geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia.

He was exiled to Transbaikalia for participating in the January Uprising of 1863. A self-taught scientist, he eventually received three gold medals from the Russian Geographical Society, and his name was given to a settlement, two mountain ranges, several peaks and other sites. He authored the first map of Lake Baikal. He received an international award from the University of Bologna, Italy. Czerski later put forward the idea for the development of topographic reliefs (1878) and produced one of the first analyses of the tectonics of central Asia (1886) and pioneered geomorphological evolution theory.

In 1878 he married Marfa Pavlovna Ivanova, a native of Siberia. In 1883 he was pardoned by the Russian government, and later regained his nobility status. He lived in Irkutsk until 1886, working in the east-Siberian section of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1886, he fell ill with progressive tuberculosis and partial paralysis. He was allowed to move to Saint Petersburg, where he joined the St Petersburg Science Academy. Despite his failing health he took time during his travel from Irkutsk to Petersburg to carefully document the geological details along the way. During this period he was appointed head of an expedition to explore the Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma river basins. He collected and catalogued over 2,500 ancient bones, publishing a large work on Quaternary Period mammals in 1888, followed by an even larger work on Siberian mammal fossils in 1891.

He died on 25 June 1892 during an expedition to the Kolyma, Yana and Indigirka Rivers. He was buried near the Omolon River.

Named after Czerski Several landmarks in Siberia were named in his honour, including: the Chersky Range in the East Siberian Mountains the Chersky (settlement) in the Sakha Republic the Chersky Range in Chita Oblast the Chersky Mountain - highest peak (2572 m) of the Baikal Range the Chersky Peak (2090 m) - one of the highest peaks of the Khamar-Daban Range the Chersky Pass in the same mountains the Chersky Stone (728 m) - a peak nearby in Listvyanka the Chersky Valley and Chersky Plateau in the Sayan Mountains a waterfall near the Baikal Lake, an inactive volcano in the Tunkinsk Valley Chersky's Place - an archeological site near Irkutsk where ancient human remains were discovered

In 2016, after being acquired by Gazprom, the pipe-layer "Jascon 18" was renamed "Akademik Cherskiy".

Three species of animal fossils were named after him: Osteolepis tscherskii (fish), Leperditia czerskii (crustacean) and Polyptchites tscherskii](ammonite) as well as numerous extant species, including cyprinid fish Sarcocheilichthys czerskii, sculpin Cottus czerskii, char Salvelinus czerskii, Baikal endemic amphipod Eulimnogammarus czerskii and bumblebee Bombus czerskii. The Irkutsk-based Jan Czerski Belarusian Culture Society, an organization of the Belarusian minority in Russia is named after Jan Czerski. A street in Vilnius, Lithuania, is named after Jan Czerski, Jonas Čerskis.

Works

The full list of Czerski's works contains 97 positions. Over a hundred published works have been dedicated to him. "Otczot o gieołogiczeskom issledowanii bieriegowoj połosy oziera Bajkała" (1886) "Gieołogiczeskije issledowanije Sibirskogo pocztowogo trakta ot oziera Bajkała do wostocznogo chriebta Uralskogo" (1888) "Dziennik podróży A. Czekanowskiego" (Czekanowski's Travel Journal) His major work in 1891