Kistiakovsky, Volodymyr

Kistiakovsky, Volodymyr [Кістяковський, Володимир; Kistjakovs’kyj], b 12 October 1865 in Kyiv, d 19 October 1952 in Moscow. Physical chemist; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1919 and of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1929; the son of Oleksander Kistiakovsky; brother of Bohdan Kistiakovsky and Ihor Kistiakovsky. A graduate of Saint Petersburg University (1889), he was a professor at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute (1903–34) and then director of the USSR Academy of Sciences’ Colloid-Electrochemical Institute (from 1945 the Institute of Physical Chemistry). He developed the surface-film theory of metal corrosion, and his work found practical applications in the passivation of metals through electrolytic plating. He published numerous papers, mostly in the areas of electrochemistry, colloid chemistry, metal corrosion, and the theory of liquids.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]