Nikitin Sergey Nikolaevich 
(23.01(04.02)1851–04(17).11.1909)

Famous Russian geologist, paleontologist and hydrogeologist. 
Born in Moscow in the family of a prosector in the Department of Anatomy of the Moscow Imperial University. 
In 1867 he graduated with honors from the gymnasium. While still a high school student Nikitin, apparently, not without the influence of the professors of the university N.N. Kaufman and G.E. Shchurovsky, carried away by botany and geology. He often accompanied respected scientists on their summer excursions around the outskirts of Moscow, gaining knowledge from them and infecting them with their love and devotion to science. It is not surprising that after graduating from the gymnasium, the young man entered the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. At the university  Nikitin took up botany with particular zeal, while geology faded into the background.In his student years, he published his first independent scientific work on the flora of Novaya Zemlya, for which he was awarded the academic degree of candidate of natural sciences. 
The first years after graduation  Nikitin devoted to teaching, reading courses in botany and geography in the women's gymnasiums of Moscow and the Commercial Academy. The lack of textbooks forced him to develop textbooks on the subjects he read. They had great success and were reprinted several times. Nikitin combined teaching with public activity: he participated in the organization of the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition, organized the Moscow Women's Natural History Courses, collaborated in the society of lovers of natural science, anthropology and ethnography. This society sent him to England to study the work of natural history museums. As the organizer of women's courses since 1875, he took upon himself the lectures on geology and mineralogy, and, as it turned out, this determined the main direction of his subsequent life. In order to better familiarize himself with the sedimentary deposits of the Russian Platform with his scarce personal funds, he visited most of the classical geological sections in Central and North-Western Russia, collecting rich paleontological material, which later became the property of the Geological Committee. On the basis of these data, in 1878 Nikitin defended his thesis for a master's degree. 
In 1882  Nikitin was invited to the post of senior geologist in the newly organized Geological Committee. This invitation was very honorable and testified to the recognition of its geological merit. He moved to Petersburg, with which his subsequent life was connected. As he himself said, “apart from material support, the move to Petersburg and work at the Geolkom gave him the opportunity to fill in major gaps in geological knowledge”. Now Nikitin devoted himself entirely to geological surveying and soon acquired the unofficial status of the most prominent specialist in stratigraphy and paleontology in Central Russia. In 1883  for his work of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the Prize of Academician G.P. Helmersen - the first head of the Geological Committee. The Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1884 awarded Nikitin a silver medal. 
Nikitin’s geological interests were not limited to the stratigraphy of the Russian Platform. In 1892 he headed the expedition of Geological Committee, which had the goal of a comprehensive study of the Trans-Ural steppes, the Ural region and the Northern Ust-Kurt. Then followed two, headed by A.A. Tillo expedition on irrigation in southern Russia and to study the sources of rivers in Central Russia. In their composition, Nikitin was entrusted with hydrogeological studies, and this area of ​​geology also became one of the leading ones for him in subsequent years. Prior to Nikitin's work in Russia, hydrogeology did not exist as a groundwater science. Hydrogeological work was carried out spontaneously, by private firms, and sometimes by semi-literate contractors. Nikitin's works on hydrogeological problems, carried out by him for a period of time, starting from 1890, allowed him to be considered the founder of hydrogeological science in Russia. He understood the need to create a centralized institution that would concentrate all hydrogeological materials and process them. Including the efforts of Nikitin in 1903, the Hydrogeological Committee was established. It is natural that during the reorganization of the committee in 1907, the General Directorate for Land Management and Agriculture of Russia proposed Nikitin to work out his new charter and take the place of chairman. This post he held until his death. 
In the last twenty years of his life  Nikitin worked a lot in the field of applied geology, hydrogeology and physical geography. As analysts of the scientific heritage of Nikitin wrote, “his wide synthetic mindset could not limit the scope of his scientific creativity to the framework of any one narrow specialty ... By the bold scope of scientific creativity, diversity of scientific interests, wide synthesis and brilliant solution of the most difficult and far from each other. other questions, S. N. Nikitin can be put on a par with such outstanding Russian scientists as academicians A.D. Arkhangelsky, A.P. Karpinsky, V.A. Obruchev, A.P. Pavlov, F.N. Chernyshev". Nikitin's works were highly appreciated. In 1894, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society honored him with its highest award - the gold Konstantinovskaya medal, in 1902 he was elected a corresponding member for the physical category of the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 
Unfortunately, his life was interrupted in the prime of his creative power. During field work in the Iletsky district, he became seriously ill and, returning to St. Petersburg, died. He was buried at the site of the Mining Institute of the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery. Granite stele with embossed cross. 
Cape in the south of the Bolshevik Island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. It was opened in 1914 by the Arctic Ocean hydrographic expedition under the command of B.А. Vilkitsky.