Boris Vasil'evich Numerov

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Boris Vasil'evich Numerov (January 29, 1891—September 13, 1941) was a Russian astronomer, land-surveyor and geophysicist. Born in Lyuban, he created various astronomic and mineralogical instruments, as well as for various algorithms and methods that bear his name. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, observer at Pulkovo from 1913-1915, astronomer at the observatory of the University of Leningrad from 1915 to 1925, and director of the Central Observatory of Geophysics (1926-7), and Professor at the University of Leningrad (1924-1937).^[1]

In 1938, Numerov visited Wallace Eckert’s lab to learn how punched card equipment might be applied to "stellar research" in his own lab at St. Petersburg University.^[2]

In 1941, he was arrested and executed during the Stalinist purges. He had been accused of being a spy in the pay of Germany. The basis of this accusation rested on the fact that German astronomers had named an asteroid after him.^[3] In 1957, his memory was rehabilitated.^[4]

Numerov crater on the Moon was named after him. Asteroid 1206 Numerowia is also named after him.