Dimitri Rozhdestvensky

Dimitri Sergeevich Rozhdestvensky (Дми́трий Серге́евич Рожде́ственский, 7 April 1876 St. Petersburg – 25 June 1940, Leningrad) was a Russian physicist. He worked on spectroscopy, examining the dispersion of sodium lines. He drew up a proposal for the State Optical Institute which was established in 1918 in Petrograd.

Rozhdestvensky graduated in 1894 and went to study at St. Petersburg. He worked in Giessen with Paul Drude from 1901 to 1903 before returning to St. Petersburg. He was involved in establishing optics research. He received a Mendeleev Medal in 1912. He became a professor of physics in 1916. He developed theories to explain atomic spectra. He is buried in the Literatorskie mostki (writers' footways) section of the Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg.