artificial satellite George Nagobads (born 1921), American physician, recipient of the Paul Loicq Award. Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932), a Baltic German chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 Georg August Schweinfurth (1836–1925) a Baltic German botanist and ethnologist who explored East Central Africa. Georg von Tiesenhausen (1914–2018), a Baltic German American rocket scientist. Juris Upatnieks (born 1936), a Latvian-American physicist and inventor, pioneer in the field of holography. Friedrich Zander (1887–1933), a Baltic German engineer, designed the first Soviet liquid-fuelled rocket Walter Zapp (1905–2003), a Baltic German inventor, he created the Minox subminiature camera. Sport Helmuts Balderis (born 1952) a Latvian former ice hockey player Dāvis Bertāns (born 1992), a Latvian professional basketball player Jānis Beinarovičs (1907-1967), a Latvian wrestler Andris Biedriņš (born 1986), a Latvian former basketball player Sergejs Boldaveško (born 1970), retired ice hockey player, born in Riga Teddy Blueger (born 1994), ice hockey player for the Pittsburgh Penguins Tanhum Cohen-Mintz (1939–2014), an Israeli basketball player Kaspars Dubra (born 1990), a footballer with 50 caps for Latvia Zemgus Girgensons (born 1994), ice hockey player, highest-ever drafted Latvian in the NHL Entry Draft Jørgen Hviid (1916–2001), a Danish and Latvian athlete; ice hockey, speed skating and sailing. Miervaldis Jurševskis (1921–2014), a Latvian-Canadian chess master and a professional artist. Matīss Kivlenieks (1996–2021), an ice hockey goaltender for the Columbus Blue Jackets Jeļena Ostapenko (born 1997) women's tennis player, 2017 French Open – Women's singles winner Sandis Ozoliņš (born 1972), Latvian ice hockey player, a seven-time NHL All-Star, Stanley Cup champion Marians Pahars (born 1976), footballer with 75 caps for Latvia Alexei Shirov (born 1972), Latvian / Spanish chess grandmaster, ranked world No. 2 in 1994 Mikhail Tal (1936–1992), Soviet-Latvian chess grandmaster, 8th. World Chess Champion. Valdis Valters (born 1957) a retired Latvian basketball player. Twin towns – sister cities Riga is twinned with: Aalborg, Denmark Almaty, Kazakhstan Astana, Kazakhstan Beijing, China Bordeaux, France Bremen, Germany Cairns, Australia Dallas, United States Florence, Italy Kaunas, Lithuania Kyiv, Ukraine Kobe, Japan Norrköping, Sweden Pori, Finland Rostock, Germany Santiago, Chile Stockholm, Sweden Suzhou, China Taipei, Taiwan Slough, England Tallinn, Estonia Tartu, Estonia Tashkent, Uzbekistan Tbilisi, Georgia Vilnius, Lithuania Warsaw, Poland Yerevan, Armenia See also Riga Charter, on cultural heritage conservation, adopted here in 2000 Riga Region Riga Salsa Festival Other capitals of the Baltic states Tallinn Vilnius Notes References Bibliography Grava, Sigurd. "The Urban Heritage of the Soviet Regime The Case of Riga, Latvia". Journal