Robert Rabilizirov

Robert Rabilizirov B.Sc, Ph.D, FRAS (born in Moscow, USSR) is a UK-based astrophysicist of Russian-Jewish origin.

Studied at University of London, followed by a Doctorate on the Origins of Life at the University of Wales with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe. Research interests included Interstellar Dust, Comets and the theory of Evolution.

Almost immediately after Harold Kroto and his colleagues discovered a new class of molecules, later called "fullerenes", for which they were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Rabilizirov was the first astrophysicist to demonstrate the importance of the C60 fullerene molecule to the chemical composition of the Interstellar Dust.

Between 1988 and 1991 he continued research work on Comets at the University of Oxford in collaboration with Dr Victor Clube.

Most of his original research was published together with the eminent astrophysicist Professor Sir Fred Hoyle and his group of close associates.

Art career
In the 1990s, Rabilizirov started spending more time on one of his other main life passions, the Russian visual arts. Apart from doing research on Russian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, he has been advising collectors and appeared in Russian art publications and on Russian TV where his expertise is frequently sought. He has now emerged as one of the leading specialists in the world on Russian and Soviet painting, and continues to work in this area up to the present day.