Tillo Alexey Andreevich
(13(25).11.1839–30.12.1899/11.01.1900)

An outstanding Russian geographer, cartographer, geodesist, corresponding member of the Petersburg (1892) and Paris Academy of Sciences, chairman of the department of mathematical geography of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, lieutenant-general, senator.
Born in Kiev. Occurred from a French noble family, his grandfather moved to Russia.
Father Tillo was an officer of the corps of engineers of communications, grandfather taught in educational institutions of Kiev. Tillo was the first to graduate from the Kiev Cadet School and was sent to St. Petersburg to the Konstantinovsky Cadet Corps (later an artillery school), from which he left as an ensign in 1859. The following year, he entered the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, where his outstanding mathematical skills showed up, and then the geodesic department of the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg. After graduation, he trained for two years at the Pulkovo Observatory under the guidance of the famous astronomer V.Ya. Struve.
In 1886, Thillo was sent in the rank of captain and as a surveyor at the disposal of the commander of the Orenburg military district, in the same year he received the rank of lieutenant colonel and the post of chief of the military topographic department of the district. Over 4-5 years of service in this region, he made six topographic and geodetic expeditions to remote steppe areas. In subsequent years, Thillo held a number of command positions.
His academic career began after leaving the General Staff. Thillo's scientific work was very multifaceted.
Together with Yu.M. Shokalsky he compiled hypsometric maps of the European part of Russia, measured the length of the main rivers of Russia. He organized and carried out work to determine the differences in the levels of the Caspian and Aral seas, he was engaged in terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, he explored the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly. Tillo took an active part in the work of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, was the head of one of its departments, twice, in 1872 and 1877, was awarded the gold medals of the society. In addition, among his scientific awards were two I class gold medals from the International Geological Congress in Venice, a gold medal from the French Society of Topography, a gold medal from Count Tolstoy from the Academy of Sciences and many others. He was a member of a number of scientific societies in various countries.
According to the reviews of contemporaries, Tillo was distinguished by extraordinary diligence, curiosity, friendliness and gentleness of character. Often, he “with special persistence applied to the Council of the Geographical Society for the appointment of medals to workers, for some reason forgotten and left in the shadows, sometimes deviating from casting a vote in favor of those claiming the academic title not for real merit, but for their position, power, value".  
Lacking good health, Tillo died at a relatively young age from croupous pneumonia on the eve of the upcoming 1900 (December 30, old style). A few hours before his death, Tillo dictated to his wife and personally signed a touching message to the members of the Geographical Society: “Parting with the dear fellow members of the Russian Geographical Society, I greet and wish them success”.

The merits of Thillo are marked by the orders of St. Stanislav 1 and 2 degrees, St. Anna of 1 and 2 degrees, St. Vladimir of 2 , 3 and 4 degrees, the White Eagle.

He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery: a granite pedestal, the cross is broken.
The island south of the island of Wilczek Land archipelago Franz Josef Land. The name was given by Soviet cartographers in the 1950s.
Islands north of the coast of Khariton Laptev near the Taimyr Peninsula. Named by F. Nansen in 1893.
Cape west of Eclipse Bay on the shore of Khariton Laptev. Named by Russian Polar Expedition in 1901.