Short answers, pulled from the story.
Vladimir Vernadsky is best known for his 1926 book The Biosphere, in which he argued that life is a geological force that shapes the Earth. He is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology.
In Vernadsky's theory, the noosphere is the third stage of Earth's development, following the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). He proposed that human cognition would fundamentally transform the biosphere just as life had transformed the geosphere.
Vladimir Vernadsky was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, into the family of economist Ivan Vernadsky and Anna Konstantinovich. His family relocated to Kharkiv in 1868.
Vernadsky was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943. He also earned a gold medal at the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris for his presentation on Russian soils. He served as the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1918.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Vernadsky served as an early adviser on the Soviet atomic bomb project. He argued for exploiting nuclear power, surveying Soviet uranium sources, and conducting nuclear fission research at his Radium Institute. He died before a full project was pursued.
Vernadsky's portrait appears on the Ukrainian 1,000 hryvnia banknote, placed in circulation on the 25th of October 2019. The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Antarctic station Akademik Vernadsky, and numerous streets in Kyiv also bear his name.