2013 – Nikolay V. Sobolev

Professor at the V. S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Russia. 

Academician Nick Sobolev is a distinguished scientist whose work on the petrology, mineralogy, and geochemistry of high-pressure (HP) and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) crustal and mantle rocks, kimberlites, as well as their xenoliths and diamonds, has had a profound influence on many disciplines in the Earth sciences. He was one of the early pioneers in the study of the morphology and composition of mineral inclusions in diamonds, with a focus on Siberian and Uralian samples. His work on Cr-rich silicate inclusions led to the classification of mantle peridotites into lherzolites, wehrlites, harzburgites, and dunites. This provided the foundation for the current use of mineral compositions in diamond exploration and the estimation of diamond grades. Through his work on continental eclogites in Kazakhstan he helped confirm the widespread distribution of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism.