Dmitri Sergeyevich Rozhdestvensky (7.04.1876-25.06.1940) was a Soviet physicist and an academician (1929; corresponding member 1925). He was born in St Petersburg. He graduated from St Petersburg University (1900), where he worked, except in 1931—38 (professor from 1915). In 1918-32 he was scientific director of the State Optical Institute, which was created on his initiative, and in 1932 —38 head of a department of the institute.
His work concerned physical and instrumental optics and atomic physics, in particular the study of anomalous dispersion, the theory of spectra and the theory of the microscope. In 1909 he developed a new method for the quantitative study of the anomalous dispersion of light, the crossed interferometer and spectrograph method (the “hook method”), which made it possible to study the dependence of the refractive index on wavelength not only near an absorption band but in the middle of it. Using his method to study anomalous dispersion in the vapours of various metals, he obtained important information on the intensity of spectral lines in the spectra of atoms. This enabled him to obtain a number of results in the theory of atomic structure and the systematics of atomic spectra. He extended Bohr's theory of the hydrogen-like atom to more complex atoms and formulated the main principles of spectral systematics (1919), and gave a complete analysis of the spectrum of the magnesium ion, which served as a model for later analyses of the spectra of ions. He was one of the first to suggest a magnetic origin of spectral doublets and triplets (1921).
He developed a theory of images in the microscope and was the first to note the important role of interference in the formation of the image. He put forward a number of ideas on the use of interference methods for studying physical processes.
He took an active part in organising the Soviet optical industry. He did much to improve the system of higher education. He founded the first Soviet school of physics (A. A. Lebedev, V. P. Linnik, I. V. Obreimov, D. V. Skobeltsyn, A. N. Terenin, V. A. Fock, E. F. Gross, S. E. Frisch, K. V. Butkov, M. A. Weingerov, N. V. Penkin, V. K. Prokofiev, A. I. Salishchev, A. I. Stozharov, A. N. Filippov, V. M. Chulanovsky and others). The USSR Academy of Sciences established the D. S. Rozhdestvensky Prize for the best work on optics.