Cefarovich, Victor Leopold von

Born April 13, 1830 in Vienna in the family of the Secretary of the Minister of Finance.

While studying at the Vienna gymnasium, he became interested in the natural sciences and minerals, but after graduating he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna (1848). Due to student unrest in the revolutionary events of 1848–1849, the university was periodically closed in the Austrian Empire and Viktor Tsefarovich was forced to leave it. He began attending courses in the Mineral Room of the Imperial Natural History Court Museum of Vienna, where he lectured in mineralogy, paleontology, general and analytical chemistry. During the courses, Cefarovich also got acquainted with the mineralogical collection of the museum, which at that time totaled more than 30,000 minerals, rocks and fossil organisms. In 1849, he went on a trip to Western Galicia, Bohemia, Tyrol, having visited Salzburg and Venice .

In the same year, Cefarovich became a student of the Mining Academy in Chemnitz (now Banska Stiavnica , Slovakia ). After graduating from a four-year course of study in two years, he graduated from the Academy in 1851. Returning to Vienna, he worked as a volunteer in the Mineral Office, then also as a volunteer in 1852 began cooperation with the Geological Survey of Austria. Over the next five years of work, he compiled several geological maps of South and Southwest Bohemia, surveyed in South Bohemia and explored the surroundings of Strakonice (now Czech Republic ). He described seven minerals discovered by him - yaulingite (1855), barrandite (1867), sphaerite (1867), diaphorite (1871), corinite (1872) and syngenite (1873) from deposits near the city of Kalush (now Ukraine ).

Since 1861, Cefarovich worked at the University of Graz . In 1862, he took part in the creation of the Styrian Natural Sciences Society, becoming his first secretary. From 1864 until the end of his life, the scientific activity of the scientist was associated with Charles University in Prague , where he taught a course in mineralogy at the Faculty of Philosophy. In 1868, he made an inventory of the university mineralogical collection and compiled its inventory. In 1872, Cefarovich was appointed dean of the faculty of philosophy.

He died on February 24, 1890 in Prague.

In his honor, in 1869, the cefarovichite mineral, now known as wavelite, was named, and the name cefarovichite remained as a synonym.

Victor Leopold von Cefarovich was awarded the Austrian state awards - holder of the Order of the Iron Crown of the 3rd class and holder of the Big Gold Medal for services to culture and science. In 1865, he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1885 - a full member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Tsefarovich was also a member of many other natural science societies in Goerlitz, Marburg, Brunn, Regensburg, Augsburg and the Palatinate. Since 1864 he was a member of the Czech Scientific Society, for ten years - chairman of the Literary Society in Prague.

The scientific merits of Viktor Tsefarovich were recognized in Russia. In 1858, he was elected a full member of the Imperial Moscow Society of Naturalists. Since 1864, he was a member of the Imperial Mineralogical Society in St. Petersburg. In connection with the 50th anniversary of the Mineralogical Society, he was awarded in 1867 the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree. December 5, 1887, he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the category of physical sciences of the Physics and Mathematics Department.

• Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the 18th – 21st centuries: Geology and mining. / Ans. Editor I. G. Malakhova. 2012, ISBN 978-5-904509-08-8 (electronic version).

• Tsefarovich, Victor Leopold von on the official website of the RAS
• Victor Leopold Ritter von Zepharovich (German)