Tvalchrelidze Alexander
Alexander Tvalchrelidze (b. December 1, 1881, Stanitsa Stanitsa Batalpashinskaya (present-day Cherkessk), Russian Empire – d. July 29, 1957, Tbilisi), geologist, full member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1941), Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences (1947), professor (1949), Honored Scientist of Georgia (1946). In 1912 he graduated from the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. In 1910, he completed a summer internship at the University of Göttingen (Germany). In 1912–1913, he worked at the Geochemical Laboratory of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, where, under the guidance of Academician V. Vernadsky, he conducted research in the geochemistry of rubidium, caesium and thallium. In 1918–1919, he worked in Novocherkassk, at the Don Polytechnic Institute and the Higher Women's Courses. Tvalchrelidze is one of the founders of the Georgian Geological School (specifically, mineralogical-petrographic research) and geological education in Georgia. In 1919, Tvalchrelidze headed the Department of Mineralogy and Petrography he founded at Tbilisi State University; in 1928–1948, he also headed the Department of the same profile that he had founded at the Georgian Polytechnic Institute. Tvalchrelidze was the founder and first director of the Caucasian Institute of Mineral Resources (1929–1957). From 1941, he was the chairman of the Council for the Study of Industrial Forces of the Georgian Academy of Sciences; on his initiative and under his leadership, a multi-volume work on the natural resources of Georgia was prepared. Tvalchrelidze's works concern mineralogy, petrography, and geological issues of mineral deposits. He also discovered and studied the Gumbra and Askana bentonite clays, as well as other mineral deposits. He is the author of high school textbooks: Geometric Crystallography (1920), Introduction to Crystal Optics (in Russian — 1933, 1934; in Georgian — 1938, 1957), Petrography of Igneous Rocks, Vol. 1 - Intrusive Rocks (1950). One of the minerals was named Tvalchrelidzeite in honor of Tvalchrelidze. The A. Tvalchrelidze Prize was established at the Georgian Academy of Sciences. He received state awards.
Literary work: თავის საბანი მიწა და ზოგიერთი მისი მოსაპოვარი ადგილი დასავლეთ საქართველოში, «ტფილისის უნ-ტის მოამბე», 1923, ტ. 3; Базальт, глины бентонитовые, глины флоридиновые, камни цветные и поделочные, редкие минералы и металлы, шпат исландский, წგ.: Минеральные ресурсы ССР Грузии, Тфл., 1933; Бентонитовые глины Грузинской ССР и ближайшие задачи их освоения, წგ.: Бентонитовые глины Грузии и их примეнение в народном хозяйстве, Тб., 1953; Андезит, базальт, гагат, глины бентонитовые, წგ.: Природные ресурсы Грузинской ССР, т. 2, М., 1959.
Literature: ალექსანდრე თვალჭრელიძე (1881–1957). ბიობიბლიოგრაფია, შემდგ. გ. მგელაძე-ბორჯაძე, თბ., 1978 (შესავალი წერილი კ. და ვ. ჯავრიშვილებისა).
V. Javrishvili
