Natalia Zotov

Natalia Victorovna Zotov was a physicist and mathematician who combined an academic career with religious life as a nun. She published many papers in theoretical and statistical cosmology.

Early life and education

Zotov was born in Karori, Wellington, the daughter of Victor Zotov, who had emigrated from Russia with his parents as a 16-year-old in 1924, and Alice Zotov. In 1955,

Religious life Zotov was brought up in the Russian Orthodox religion and was allowed to choose an Anglican or Catholic church in Christchurch; she chose Anglican, so her friends were surprised when she had joined the Catholic Dominican Sisters in Dunedin, entering religious life at St Dominic's Priory, Dunedin in 1973. Zotov was made a member of scientific research honor society Sigma Xi in 1995. from cancer. She had suffered from scoliosis of the spine.