Born in 1927 in the ancient town of Kasimov, east of Moscow, to a family of physicians, he shortly thereafter moved to Moscow. In 1944 he began his geological studies in the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute, and continued these in the Geological Faculty of Moscow University where he graduated in 1954. As a student, he participated in geological mapping and investigation of petroleum resources of the Paleozoic deposits of the Polar Uralian Mountains, northern and southern ridges of the Tien-Shan Mountains of central Asia, Gorniy and Roudny Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, and the Russian Platform and polar areas of the Eastern Siberian Platform, obtaining a working knowledge of methods of geological mapping for regional and petroleum geology. While working in the various facies of the Miocene deposits in Podolia in the western Ukraine in 1947, he found their extremely rich benthic foraminiferal assemblages to be useful for solving micropaleontological problems. In 1953 he published his studies of investigations in polarized light of the foraminiferal shell wall.

While accompanying Prof. D. M. Rauzer-Chernoussova in her field work in the vicinity of Kasimov in 1954, she suggested that Valery concentrate on micropaleontologic and stratigraphic studies. He began these studies in the oil-bearing Cenozoic fields of the North Caucasus for the Moscow All-Union Petroleum Scientific Institute, but in 1956 he was invited by Prof. Rauzer-Chernoussova to join the Geological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and he has remained at that institute to the present. From 1970-1989 he headed the Micropaleontological Laboratory at the Geological Institute, from 1974 to 1989 he served as Deputy Director and Head of the Department of Stratigraphy, and since 1989 has been the Main Scientist at the Institute.

His research could be divided into three main phases, the first concerning the smaller foraminifera and stratigraphy of the Paleogene and Neogene in many areas of the Soviet Union, the Fore- Carpathians, Moldavia, Crimea, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaidjan, the Aral Sea region and the Transcaspian of Turkmenia. His numerous published articles and monographs on the Soviet Cenozoic range from regional stratigraphy and correlation, and paleogeographic links of the Miocene Carpathian and Crimea-Caucasian basins, to paleoecological changes in foraminiferal assemblages related to rhythms of sedimentation, and their lateral facies distribution to the Miocene of Podolia. Other research involved the morphology and taxonomy of the Elphidiidae and Nonionidae, Paleogene climatic belts, the synchronous or asynchronous development of the various microfossil groups, planktonic foraminifera, nannoplankton, nummulitids, and palynological assemblages.

He presented his candidate dissertation on Neogene stratigraphy of Podolia at the Geological Institute in 1956, and his doctoral thesis in 1973 on the Cenozoic of the Crimea-Caucasian realm, then receiving a professorship. His stratigraphic studies of the oil-bearing fields of the USSR resulted in the award in 1976 of the state order of the "Red Banner of Labour".

Although the Paleocene and Eocene sediments of the USSR represent an open sea facies of normal salinity, Oligocene and Neogene sediments were deposited in closed and semiisolated seas characterized by endemic benthic microfaunas, that are useful for local correlation but not for world-wide correlation and solution of other important Cenozoic questions. Hence the second period of Prof. Krasheninnikov's activity concerns the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1958-1962 he participated in an expedition to Syria in which the entire country was mapped geologically on a scale of 1:200,000. Krasheninnikov supplied the stratigraphic zonal schemes for the Paleogene, and Mediterranean and Mesopotamian Neogene, in order to unify the mapping units for all of Syria. More than 30,000 samples were studied in order to obtain the necessary degree of precision. The mixed character of the Paleogene planktonic foraminiferal assemblages allowed exact correlation of the tropical (Caribbean) faunal zones of H. Bolli with the subtropical/temperate (Crimea-Caucasian) zonal scheme of N. Subbotina, and resulted in corrections of previous misconceptions concerning the Soviet Eocene. In 1983-1989 he headed a geological expedition in Syria, continuing his studies of its Cenozoic strata with detailed correlation of the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean Neogene, correlating the pelagic facies with planktonic foraminifera to the shallow-water nummulitic rocks, and determining the geochronology of the Syrian Paleocene by glauconite-based K/Ar and Rb/Sr analysis.

Following studies in Syria, Dr. Krasheninnikov worked in other Eastern Mediterranean countries, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Cyprus. In 1973 his monographs on the regional stratigraphy of the Eastern Mediterranean, and interregional Cenozoic correlation resulted in his receipt of the award of the Academician A. Karpinskiy Memorial Prize of the Academy of Sciences.

The third phase of his scientific activity (1969-1981) was connected with the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), including participation in several cruises of the "Glomar Challenger" (Legs 6, 20, 27, and 41) in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, and he was Co-Chief Scientist of Leg 71 in the Southern Ocean (Falkland Plateau). For some years he represented the USSR Academy of Sciences on the Executive Committee of the DSDP and was a member of its Stratigraphic Panel. He became personally acquainted with many micropaleontologists from America and elsewhere on these cruises, and panels, and during the scientific meetings of the DSDP Shipboard party for the various Legs, held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The writers were privileged to accompany Dr. Krasheninnikov and the sedimentologist Dr. A. Litsitsyn in field collection in the Cenozoic of California following one of these scientific visits. He also published many articles concerning the oceanic stratigraphy of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic based on planktonic and benthic foraminifera and calcisphaerulids in the DSDP Initial Reports for Legs 45, 46, 48, 54, 60, and 62. Particular attention was given to the high latitudinal regions, where planktonic foraminifera are gradually replaced for detailed stratigraphic resolution by siliceous microfossils, although remaining important for understanding climatic fluctuations, and location of climatic belts. His monographs on these topics, "Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Southern Ocean", "Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Southern Ocean", and "Paleogene stratigraphy of the high latitudinal areas of the Pacific", resulted in the 1987 award of the first prize of the Moscow Society of Natural Sciences. He also participated in the 1970-1971 Cruise 49 of the scientific vessel "Vityaz" in the Pacific (from Vladivostok to Dunedin, New Zealand), and served as Head of the 1987 Cruise 5 of the vessel "Akademician N. Strakov" in the eastern Mediterranean.

Krasheninnikov was instrumental in organizing research in the Department of Stratigraphy at the Moscow Geological Institute to include many microfossil groups as well as the foraminifera, including conodonts (lowermost Cambrian to Triassic), radiolarians (Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic), diatoms, dinoflagellates, and calcareous nannoplankton. In 1983-1988 he was a member of the UNESCO Scientific Committee of the International Geologic Correlation Program, and currently serves as a member of the IUGS International Paleogene Subcommission.

The Board of Directors of the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research is proud to recognize the distinguished achievements of Dr. Valery A. Krasheninnikov as a scientist and professor, on a variety of problems of Mesozoic and Cenozoic paleontology, stratigraphy, interregional biostratigraphic correlation, and paleoecology, by presenting to him the 1992 Joseph A. Cushman Award for Excellence in Foraminiferal Research.

ALFRED R. LOEBLICH, JR. and HELEN TAPPAN
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
University of California at Los Angeles

Journal of Foraminiferal Research, v. 23, no. 3, p. 154-155, July 1993