Borysiak, Nykyfor

Borysiak, Nykyfor [Борисяк, Никифор; Borysjak], b 27 March 1817 in the village of Rih, Poltava gubernia, d 30 March 1882 in Zolotonosha, Poltava gubernia. Geologist and professor at Kharkiv University. His major works were concerned with the geological structure, useful minerals, and soils of Ukraine, especially of the Donets Basin. He also studied the Urals. He wrote Sbornik materialov, otnosiashchikhsia do geologii Iuzhnoi Rossii (A Collection of Materials on the Geology of Southern Russia, 1867). He was the first to put forward and substantiate the theory about the existence of hard-coal deposits beyond the old Donbas farther to the west (in the Great Donbas).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]