Gleb Wataghin — physicist with roots in the Russian Empire
Gleb Wataghin was a Ukrainian-born physicist who emigrated to Italy and then Brazil, where he founded the physics department at the University of São Paulo and became a pioneer of cosmic ray research in Latin America. He trained a generation of Brazilian physicists who built the country's scientific infrastructure.
Tracing the roots — Birzula (Ukr)
Born in Birzula (now Podilsk, Ukraine, Russian Empire) in 1899, Wataghin studied in St. Petersburg before the Revolution displaced him westward through Italy to Brazil. His decision to stay in São Paulo and build a physics school from scratch transformed Brazilian science — one of the most consequential acts of scientific diaspora in the 20th century.
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Birzula (Ukr). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.