Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (Владимир Иванович Вернадский) (March 12, 1863, N.S. [ February 28, O.S. ] – January 6 1945) was a Russian mineralogist and geochemist who first popularized the concept of the noosphere and deepened the idea biosphere to the meaning largely recognized by today's scientific community. The word biosphere was invented by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, whom Vernadsky had met in 1911. Vernadsky is considered one of the precursors of ecology.

Vernadsky's most important works are:

• Geochemistry, published in Russian 1924
• The Biosphere, published in Russian 1926 (English translation 1998)