Klosovsky, Oleksander

Klosovsky, Oleksander [Клосовський, Олександер; Klosovs'kyj], b 30 May 1846 in Zhytomyr, Volhynia gubernia, d 13 April 1917 in Petrograd. Meteorologist and geophysicist; corresponding member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences from 1910. Klosovsky graduated from Kyiv University (1868) and Odesa University (PH D,1884) and was professor at Odesa University (1880–1907) and Saint Petersburg University (1909–17). In 1886 he began the organization of the Meteorological Network in the southwestern part of the Russian Empire, which by 1896 had over 1,000 weather stations throughout Russian-ruled Ukraine. Research conducted at these stations was published in a regular serial. In 1892 Klosovsky founded a magneto-meteorological observatory in Odesa. In his work he combined theoretical and experimental approaches to the study of the earth’s atmosphere. His publications include general works on meteorology as well as studies on the climate of Kyiv (published in Zapiski Iugo-zapadnogo otdela Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva, 1874 and 1898) and Odesa (1893).

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