Maria Glazovskaya—A Pioneer Soil Scientist and Geochemist Ahead of her Time (1912–2016)

Abstract

In the USSR and in Russia, women predominated among soil scientists despite the problems related to field research in tundra, taiga, mountains and other severe environments. One such woman was Maria Glazovskaya, who worked in highlands and semi-deserts studying little known soils, both recent and relict, primary pedogenesis, and geochemical features of hard rock weathering. Her scientific interests were diverse, and corresponded well with the social and scientific trends of the moment. She put forward new ideas and applied existing ones in several spheres of soil geography and landscape geochemistry. She proposed new approaches for compiling soil and landscape-geochemical maps, including using soil properties to predict the risks of soil pollution with heavy metals, and using landscape-geochemical methods to prospect for economic minerals. In the interdisciplinary conceptual sphere, Glazovskaya tried to bring together soil science and landscape geochemistry, and included these two subjects in the name of the department in Moscow University that she headed for more than 30 years. She was a scientist always looking for her own way in the interdisciplinary world of earth science.