Boris Numerov

Who was Boris Numerov?

Boris Vasilyevich Numerov was a Russian astronomer, land-surveyor and geophysicist. Born in Lyuban, he created various astronomic and mineralogical instruments, as well as for various algorithms and methods that bear his name. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, observer at Pulkovo from 1913-1915, astronomer at the observatory of the University of Leningrad from 1915 to 1925, and director of the Central Observatory of Geophysics, and Professor at the University of Leningrad.

In 1936, Numerov visited Wallace Eckert’s lab to learn how punched card equipment might be applied to "stellar research" in his own lab at St. Petersburg University.

In October 1936, he was arrested and then sentenced to 10 years hard labour. He had been accused of being a spy in the pay of Germany. The basis of this accusation rested on the fact that German astronomers had named an asteroid after him. It is believed that he was executed along with other political prisoners in September 1941 at the Oryol Prison in Oryol, Russia before city's surrender to Nazi Germany. In 1957, his memory was rehabilitated.