Ignacy Domeyko
From Free net encyclopedia
Ignacy Domeyko (Template:Lang-be; also spelled Domejko in Polish, Ignas Domeika in Lithuanian); July 31, 1802 - January 23, 1889, Santiago de Chile) was a famous 19th century Polish geologist and mineralogist from the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Domeyko was born in Miadźviedka (Niedźwiadka) manor (Template:Lang-be), near Niaśviž (Template:Lang-be, Template:Lang-pl), Navahradak (Polish: Nowogródek) district, Minsk guberniya, Imperial Russia, now in Kareličy district, Belarus. During his life his homeland was a part of the Russian Empire, of which he was officially a citizen. However, Domeyko was brought up in the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a multicultural entity that was destroyed shortly before his birth, in the third partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. For these reasons and since he spent most of his life in Chile, he is considered a person of national merit in Belarus, Chile, Lithuania and Poland.
Domeyko studied at Vilnius University under Jędrzej Śniadecki, and at the École des Mines in Paris. He was a close friend of the Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, considered the greatest Polish poet and rival of Alexander Pushkin to the title of greatest poet of the Eastern Europe. After participating in the November Uprising, an insurrection attempting to revive the Poland, in 1831 Domeyko chose to emigrate to France rather than face Russian reprisals. In 1838 he left for Chile and lived there until May 22, 1884, when he returned for an extended visit to Europe. He stayed four years in Poland, receiving an honorary doctorate at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and touring Europe, then returned to Chile. Image:Domejko znaczek.jpg He was a professor at a mining college in Coquimbo (La Serena), and later at the University of Santiago de Chile (Universidad de Chile), where he has been elected to the position of the rector for 16 years (1867-1883)..
He greatly advanced studies in mineralogy and mining techniques, researched several new minerals, advocated civil rights of the native tribal people and was also a meteorologist and ethnographer.
Several entities have been named in his honor, including the mineral Domeykit, the shellfish Nautilus domeykus, the ammonite Amonites domeykanus, the asteroid 2784 Domeyko, the Andean mountain range Cordillera Domeyko, and the Chilean city of Domeyko.
On the 200th Anniversary of Domeyko’s birth, UNESCO declared the year 2002 "Ignacy Domeyko Year." Several commemorative events were held in Chile under the auspices of Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.
The descendants of Domeyko form today a very respectable family which can be found in different areas of Chilean culture.
See also
References
- Template:Cite book Polish language
- Template:Cite book Polish language
- Template:Cite book Polish language
- Template:Cite book Polish language
- Template:Cite book Portuguese language
- Template:Cite book review, Polish language
- Paz Domeyko Lea-Plaza. Ignacio Domeyko. La Vida de un Emigrante. Santiago, Chile.2002. Random House Mondadori (Editorial Sudamericana)ISBN 956-262-161.8. Spanish language
- Paz Domeyko. A Life in Exile. Ignacy Domeyko 1802-1889. Sydney, Australia 2005. ISBN 0-646-44728.9. English language. Available from author. See website Paz Domeyko, www.pazdomeyko.com