P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Bobojonov, Pulod
Tajik astrophysicist Pulod Bobojonovich Bobojonov was born in Uro-
teppa on October 15, 1930. He joined the CPSU in 1955.
Bobojonov graduated from the Leninabad Pedagogical Institute in
1949, and became a candidate at the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan
and Moscow State University (1950-1954). Thereafter, until 1958, he
served as the main astronomer at the Observatory. In 1958 and 1959, he
was the Head of the Institute of Meteorology and Astrophysics of the
Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. Between 1959 and 1971, he served
as the Director of that Institute. In 1970, he received his doctorate in
physics and mathematics. In 1971, he became the Dean of Tajikistan
State University, and he became a professor in 1973.
Bobojonov's studies examine the orbit, physical nature and division
of matter in inter-stellar space. He has determined the orbit of over 400
meteors and has discovered over 20 meteor cells. Between 1968 and
1970, Bobojonov was the leader of an expedition to Somalia; he became
the first in the world to measure the track changes of meteors. Under his
supervision, the Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences
built an observatory for observing meteors, which became the founda-
tion for the study of the principle of observing and photographing and
locating meteors at the National level.
Bobojonov participated in many congresses and headed some. He
was awarded a number of medals. Bobojonov's contributions include
Issledovanie skorostei izverzhenia veshchestva iz yaderkomet (Research
on the Velocity of Matter of the Center of a Comet, Stalinabad, 1955);

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Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century

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and Metodi i nekotorie rezul'tati fotograficheskikh issledovanii mete-

orov (Principles and Some Results of Research on Photographing
Meteors, Moscow, 1963).
Bobojonov received the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor,
and a medal named after S. I. Vavilov.