Dr. Evgeny Kharin

Dr. Evgeny Kharin was awarded an International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy long service medal for his significant contributions to accumulation, retention and dissemination of data on the Earth's magnetic field required for fundamental scientific research. He was Director of the World Data Center for Solar-Terrestrial Physics for 42 years based at the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Through his extensive experience of working with geophysical data, he developed international systems of collecting and storing data on the Earth's magnetic field, the ionospheric phenomena of solar activity, and cosmic rays. Of particular note is his contribution to the long series of observations of geomagnetic variations and geomagnetic indices, which are included in the international Space Physics Interactive Data Resource (SPIDR). Under his leadership and with his direct involvement, international projects were undertaken to save historic magnetograms, and to prepare for and collect data and information from the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (for which he was awarded Diplomas by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Organizing Committee). Latterly, he took an active role in developing the national node for Russian INTERMAGNET data collection.

Sadly, he passed away soon after the awards ceremony at the Merida Scientific Assembly.