The Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO) RAN, Russian: Федеральное государственное бюджетное учреждение науки Институт океанологии имени П. П. Ширшова Российской академии наук (ИО РАН) or Институт океанологии им. П. П. Ширшова РАН) is the premier research institution for ocean, climate, and earth science in Russia. It was established in 1946 and is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is headquartered in Moscow. The institute is named after Pyotr Shirshov, who founded it in 1946.
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History
In January 1941, the Laboratory of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was founded by researcher Pyotr Shirshov. The organisation was the first institution in the country dedicated to the study of oceanology. These plans were however, disrupted by World War II, with Shirshov being appointed the People's Commissar of the Maritime Fleet.
On 31 January 1946, by decision of the Academy of Sciences, the laboratory was reorganised and formalised as the Institute of Oceanology, with Pyotr Shirshov appointed as the institutes first director. By decision of the presidium, the following areas of research were identified:
Ocean floor and coastal morphodynamics
Marine sedimentation
Ocean currents
Thermal processes and thermal balance
General circulation of water and ocean water flows
Circulation of substances and sea productivity
Geographical distribution of flora and fauna
Ecology of ocean organisms
Titanic, Bismarck and I-52
Throughout the 1990s, the Institute closely cooperated with the Canadian filmmaker James Cameron on the production of Titanic (1997), providing essential technical assistance through dives to the wreck site, located at a depth of 3,821 metres. A number of dives were conducted from the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, conducted by the deep-submergence vehicles Mir-1 and Mir-2, all of which appear in the film. The main pilot of the Mir submersibles was explorer and pilot Anatoly Sagalevich.
The institute would cooperate with James Cameron for several more expeditions. In 2001, another expedition to the wreck of the Titanic for the documentary Ghosts of the Abyss took place, as well as another in 2002 to the German battleship Bismarck for the Discovery Channel special Expedition: Bismarck. Cameron also led an expedition for his 2005 documentary Aliens of the Deep.
In 1995, Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, alongside the two Mir submersibles embarked on a salvage operation to locate the Japanese submarine I-52 and retrieve her supposed valuable cargo of gold. Despite a number of dives being conducted, no gold was discovered.
In addition, several more expeditions to the Titanic took place in 2000 and 2005 with RMS Titanic Inc.
Organisational structure
Directors
Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov, 1946-1953
Vladimir Grigoryevich Kort, 1953-1965
Andrei Sergeyevich Monin, 1965-1987
Vyacheslav Semenovich Yastrebov, 1987-1992
Leonid Alekseevich Savostin, 1992-1994
Sergey Sergeevich Lappo, 1994-2006
Robert Iskanderovich Nigmatulin, 2006-2017
Alexey Valentinovich Sokov, 2017-2023
Vladimir Petrovich Shevchenko, 2023-present
Founding members
Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov
Veniamin Grigorievich Bogorov
Georgy Alekseevich Ushakov
Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin
Lev Alexandrovich Zenkevich
Panteleimon Leonidovich Bezrukov
Semyon Vladimirovich Bruevich
Vladimir Borisovich Shtokman
Nikolai Nikolaevich Sysoev
Vasily Iosifovich Kalinenko
Alexey Dmitrievich Dobrovolsky
Vasily Nikitich Nikitin
Sergey Vasilievich Suetov
Pyotr Ivanovich Usachev
Branches
In addition to its headquarters in Moscow, the Shirshov Institute maintains branches in Kaliningrad, Gelendzhik, Saint Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan and Vladivostok.
Research areas
As stated, the institute carries out research in the following fields:
Physics of the ocean
Marine geology and geophysics
Marine biology and ecology
Interaction between the ocean and atmosphere
Development and testing of technologies for studying and developing the ocean
Complex research of the polar regions
Extreme and dangerous phenomena, natural and man-made disasters
Fleet
RV Akademik Ioffe (ru:Академик Иоффе (судно))
RV Akademik Sergey Vavilov
RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh
RV Professor Shtokman (ru:Профессор Штокман (судно))
RV Rift
RV Akvanaft
MIR (submersible)
RV Vityaz - not active since 1979; now a museum in Kaliningrad.
Notable researchers
Biologists
Igor Akimushkin (d. 1993)
Kir Nesis (1934–2003)
Climate scientists
Olga Zolina
Mathematicians
Grigory Barenblatt (d. 2018)
Andrei Monin, Director of the Institute 1965-1987 (d. 2007)
Physical oceanographers
Leonid Brekhovskikh (d. 2005)
Vladimir Shtokman (d. 1968)
Others
Anatoly Sagalevich, explorer and pilot of the MIR submersible to the seabed under the North Pole (the Arktika 2007 project)
Alexander Gorodnitsky, poet and geologist