Ivan Vailyevich VDOVIN is
director of the Museum for Local Lore at the 'Sverdmet' Joint Stock Company. He
is also engaged in studying the history of indigenous populations, historical
monuments and flora and fauna of the Kola Peninsula - to which he has organized
more than 20 expeditions. An avid photographer, he has contributed to five
documentaries about the Kola Peninsula. He is also among the initiators of an
effort to establish a national park in Lovozero Tundra.
Prior to this, he worked at the Umbozero underground mine in the extraction of
rare mineral ores. He graduated from the Moscow Geological Institute as a mining
engineer specializing in geological survey and exploration of rare and
radioactive elements.