The USSR Academy of Sciences established the Far East Geological Institute (FEGI) on September 4, 1959 within the Far Eastern Branch of the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Later, in October 1970 it was reorganized into the Far East Geological Institute, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Science (FEGI FEB RAS). The Institute's first Director was a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Ekaterina Alexandrovna Radkevich. She is recognized for her decisive role in organizing and developing FEGI’s basic research. Since establishment the Institute has been headed by renowned scientists, including Academicians V.G. Moiseenko and A.D. Scheglov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.Ya. Nekrasov, and Academician A.I. Khanchuk.
FEGI FEB RAS is aimed to organize and perform fundamental and applied research in geology and metallogeny in the East Asia and the Pacific margins.
The Geological Institute's basic scientific activities fall into three main research areas:
- Geology, lithosphere dynamics, magmatism and metamorphism within the Earth's crust, and studies of the mantle ocean-continent transition zone evolution;
- Metallogeny of typical geodynamic environments;
- Environmental geology, interaction between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere in modern geo-ecological systems of the Pacific Region.
The Institute is a multidisciplinary scientific establishment and includes 13 modern research laboratories, where scientists research the most difficult and complex issues of geology, geochemistry, engineering geology, and geo-ecology of the Russian Far East.
The Institute employs 232 people including one hundred and six scientists who carry out investigations on the most pressing issues, as geodynamics, geology of mineral resources, geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology and volcanology, and geoecology. The staff includes one Academician, one Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, twenty-three Professors, and sixty-two Doctors.
FEGI is composed of thirteen research laboratories including one to be the representative of the Sakhalin Branch. The established Analytical Center is furnished with up-to-date precision apparatus and sophisticated equipment and affords the full range of analytical investigations of rocks and minerals. A vigorous, functional Scientific Council of the Institute has a right to award scientific degrees in general and regional geology, petrology, volcanology, solid minerals prospecting, and minerogeny.
The Institute has a successful education program for postgraduate students. Institute scientists work in close collaboration with local universities and colleges, periodically presenting lectures and supervising student scientific course and field works.