Prof. Michael Ivanov passed away

With deep sorrow we inform you that our colleague and friend Mikhail Ivanov passed away on February 15th, after long disease.

Professor Dr Mikhail Ivanov (24/10/1945-15/02/2012) graduated in 1969 from the Department of Petroleum Geology and Geochemistry, Faculty of Geology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Russia. Throughout his career he stayed attached to this Department. He got his PhD Degree in 1975, and a Doctor of Sciences Degree and position of full professor in 1999. In 2004 he was elected Head of the MSU Department of Petroleum Geology and Geochemistry. He is the author of some 100 research papers in the field of marine and petroleum geology.

Talented educator and researcher, as early as in 1988 he introduced to UNESCO an idea of a “floating university”. His innovative proposal was to launch an international program that would provide for a dual but complementary function: (a) shipboard training of young scientists and students and (b) providing for the advancement, through research, of general scientific knowledge concerning the sea-bottom processes, structure and history. M. Ivanov was an organizer and a chief scientist in all 18 cruises implemented between 1991 and 2010 within the Training-through-Research (TTR) Program of UNESCO and its IOC in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, North and Central Atlantic. He carried out his last cruise (TTR-18) just last September, in the Barents Sea.

Within the TTR program he established fruitful cooperation with well over 100 universities and research institutions in Europe and elsewhere. Under his leadership and in cooperation with many other partners, the TTR cruises provided for detailed surveys of processes of mud volcanism, diapirism and related phenomena of mass input from the geosphere into hydrosphere and biosphere on Atlantic Margins and contributed to studies of ecosystems of deep water coral reefs. Pioneering studies of gas hydrates have been undertaken as well as studies of deep sea sedimentary depositional systems and their processes of formation on continental margins. Over 1000 students and young researches from all around the world were involved in these studies and received advanced training.

Prof. Ivanov was Director of the UNESCO-MSU Centre for Marine Geology and Geophysics established in support of the TTR program and Holder of the UNESCO/IOC Chair in Marine Geology and Geophysics, the training ‘arm’ of the program.

TTR was important but just one part of his professional life. Over 40 years of his career were devoted to petroleum geology research and education. His former students and PhD students work now in many geological and petroleum companies in Russia and abroad. He was member of the editorial board of the Marine and Petroleum Geology international Journal and elected Member of the Academy of Environmental Sciences of Russia. He was decorated with the Gold Lomonosov Medal for outstanding results in education and the IOC (of UNESCO) 50th anniversary commemorative medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the IOC programme activities.