On January 14, on its search engine’s start page, Google posted a doodle dedicated to the 194th birthday of the famous Russian geographer, traveler, vice-president of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky. The image shows a portrait of the explorer himself, as well as a map, a drawing with a mountain landscape, a manuscript, and stationery.
Outstanding researcher Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1827–1914) devoted more than 65 years of his life to the Russian Geographical Society.
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In 1856, he went to study the Tian Shan mountain system, which at that time was a blank spot on the world map. The scientist was the first to create a diagram of the ridges, explored Lake Issyk-Kul, discovered the upper reaches of the Syr Darya and dozens of new plant species unknown to science. Semyonov laid the foundation for geological and geographical knowledge about the Tian Shan. On the 50th anniversary of the expedition, the prefix "Tyan-Shansky" was added to his name for these merits.
In 1873, Pyotr Petrovich was elected vice-president of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and held this post until his death. Heading the IRGS, Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky proved himself to be a wonderful organizer of major expeditions and educator of a brilliant constellation of scientists. He also published a three-volume history of the Society's activities during the first 50 years of its existence.
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On his initiative, in 1897 the first general census of the population of Russia was conducted – the only one before the 1917 revolution.
A glacier and a peak in the Central Tian Shan, a ridge south of Qinghai Lake, peaks in the Caucasus, Alaska, Spitsbergen bear the name of Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky on the maps.
Doodles are images, animations and games based on the Google logo that appear on the main search page in honor of various events, holidays and anniversaries. Doodles can be both global – available in all countries of the world – and local, which can be seen only in one or several countries. Ideas for doodles come from both company employees and Google users. Each of the doodles has a team of illustrators and engineers behind it. To date, over 4,000 doodles have been created at Google.