Svetlana Sobolevskaia

Dr Sobolevskaia had a full career as a PhD research physicist. Her work on magnetic resonance led to development of the magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, for medical testing. She worked at the Andronikashvili Institute of Physics in Tbilisi. She was leading contributor in research, yet had to navigate the male-dominated organization, and was often the one whose diplomacy brought the independent, brilliant scientists to collaboration. The Institute was a renowned organization producing many original innovations and new scientific knowledge. The Institute also had a secret pet bear, which they raised from a cub and kept in their courtyard. Svetlana was an esteemed contributor and a key part of making the collaborators a family.

A physicist in the Soviet Union received a modest salary, but there were a few perks. Svetlana traveled many times to scientific conferences, sometimes as a presenter, in Moscow, St Petersburg, Minsk, Novosibirsk, etc. and took her precocious daughter along. Her colleagues enjoyed use of facilities of the Soviet Academy of Sciences for field research or retreats. The locations varied from snow skiing cabins, to lakeside cottages, to remote rustic mountain lodges. Families of scientists would pool their resources and vacation together, sharing meals and entertaining children. There was ice skating and skiing in winter, and hiking and mushroom foraging in summer, and after-dinner conversations ranging from issues of life, to fundamentals of science, to mathematics of quantum physics. Svetlana enabled many wonderful experiences for her daughter listening to these brilliant minds in their relaxed deliberations.

Svetlana was raised in the village of Dedoplis Tskaro, in the Kakheti wine country of Republic of Georgia. Her parents were Vladimir Michael Sobolevski and Ekaterina Fedot Sokhina. Sobolevski was born in eastern Poland in an aristocratic family. He lived in Minsk, which is now western Belarus, until he fled from the Bolsheviks, to Tbilisi, Georgia. After graduation, he moved to Dedoplis Tskaro to be a teacher and met his bride. Ekaterina Sokhina moved to Tbilisi when her daughter was 8 years old. Svetlana was teased for being a ‘village girl’, motivating her to become Valedictorian of her class. Svetlana graduated from Tbilisi State University, and continued her studies to earn her PhD in physics.

Svetlana was lovingly married to the late Dr Levan Jorjishvili for 58 years. They shared scientific collaborations, travel adventures, delicious meals, evenings at the opera, and raising their daughter and grandsons. Levan and Svetlana came to live with us in the United States just after Nicholas was born. They discussed and taught Nicholas and Andrew on a wide range of scientific topics, their appreciation for music, and to speak Russian. They enjoyed visiting the boys’ schools, and concerts, and traveling with us to tour gardens, to the beach, and to the mountains. Svetlana was active in Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church and loved the friendship, and fellowship, and music, and seeing her grandsons’ participation.

Svetlana frequently cooked traditional Georgian and Russian food: kotleti (meat patties), khachapuri (cheese bread), pkhali (pureed vegetables), abkhazura (meatballs), blinchiki (pancakes), and borsch (soup). Svetlana taught us well the important Georgian tradition of being a good dinner host, or tamada, and leading rounds of toasts: to God, to Georgia, to peace, to our deceased, to life and children, to parents, to our women, to our guests, to our gathering.

Svetlana is survived by her daughter Ekaterina Levan Jorjishvili Cox, son-in-law William Cox, and grandsons Nicholas William Cox and Andrew Levan Cox, Sister Mzia Nikoladze and brother-in-law Constantine Nikoladze, Niece Kheti Nikoladze, and husband Beka Kazishvili, and children Mariam and Lucca, and nephews Andrei Jorjishvili and Irakli Jorjishvili.

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