Famous Polytech graduates

• Soviet physicist, engineer and innovator, Nobel laureate (1978). Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974). Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939; corresponding member since 1929), awarded its Grand Gold Medal named after Lomonosov (1959). Member of the Royal Society of London (1929) and Leopoldina (1958), foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1946)

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  Born July 8, 1894 in Kronstadt

  In 1918 he graduated from the Electromechanical Faculty of the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Peter the Great (Polytechnic, now - St. Petersburg Polytechnic University of Peter the Great, SPbPU) as an electrical engineer. During his studies, Pyotr Kapitsa engaged in scientific research at the Department of Physics under the guidance of Professor Abram Ioffe.

  In 1923, he defended his thesis "The passage of alpha rays through a material medium and methods of obtaining strong magnetic fields" and received his Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University.

  In 1928 Kapitsa was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (without defending his dissertation).

  In 1929 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1939 - an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).

  Contribution to science

  Pyotr Kapitsa's highest scientific achievement is the discovery of superfluidity of liquid helium (1938) and the study of its properties. These studies formed the basis of Lev Landau's theory of superfluidity. Kapitsa and Landau's research led to the emergence of a new field of science, low-temperature physics.

  In addition, he developed a new method of air liquefaction using a turboexpander, which predetermined the development of large-scale installations for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases in the world (1936-1938). To develop and master the serial production of turboexpanders for air separation plants, Kapitsa initiated the formation of the All-Union Research Institute of Helium Technology in 1944 (now NPO Heliymash, Moscow).

  In 1964, the first volume of Kapitsa's scientific works was published in English in England. In the USSR, three volumes of his collected works were published after his death: "Strong Magnetic Fields" (1988), "Low Temperature Physics and Technology" (1989), "High Power Electronics and Plasma Physics" (1991). Published in 1974 in the publishing house "Nauka" a collection of articles and speeches "Experiment. Theory. Practice" was also published abroad (in nine languages).

  "For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low-temperature physics" in 1978, Pyotr Kapitsa was posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (jointly with the American astrophysicist Arno Penzias and astronomer Robert Wilson).

• Electrical engineer, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1931), Hero of Socialist Labor (1956), laureate of the Stalin Prize, Honored Worker of Science and Technology.

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  He was born on January 1 (13), 1866 in the fortress of Anapa, Black Sea region of the Russian Empire (now Krasnodar Krai)

  His first major work was written on the topic "On methods of studying the polarization of the solar corona". The Faculty Council highly appreciated this work, so the young promising electrical engineer received an appointment at the University to prepare for a professorship. The next step was a trip to Paris in 1888, to attend courses at the Higher School of Electrical Engineering and the Sorbonne. At the same time, he paid attention to practical electrical engineering - he familiarized himself with it at the Edison plant and for two years he overcame the path from a worker to chief fitter.

  In 1890 Chatelain returned to the city of his student days - St. Petersburg. He became an assistant to Professors I. I. Borgman and N. G. Egorov at the university, and also taught at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. At the age of twenty-seven he took part in the competition for the position of the first professor of electrical engineering in Russia. He successfully delivered two public lectures at the Institute's Council, and as a result was confirmed as a professor.

  On March 26, 1913 he made the world's first experience of synchronization and parallel operation of thermal and hydraulic power plants - Central Pyatigorsk hydroelectric power plant ("White Coal") and "Pyatigorsk thermal power plant".

  M.A. Chatelain was one of the organizers of the Polytechnic Institute (since 1901), and his entire life was connected with it. In 1920 Mikhail Andreevich became a member of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO). His main works are on general issues of electrical engineering, lighting engineering, metrology and history of technology.

  He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, State Prize of the USSR.

  For more information, see the Politech website (https://www.spbstu.ru/university/about-the-university/history/rectors/shatelen/).

• Soviet and Russian physicist, specialist in the physics and engineering of strong and superstrong magnetic fields, pulse power engineering and high-voltage pulse engineering, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2011).

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  Graduated from the Electromechanical Faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1956.

  Professor at the Higher School of High Voltage Engineering, Institute of Energy of SPbPU.

  In 2011 he was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

  He conducted research related to the generation of superstrong ("megagauss") pulsed magnetic fields and studies of the interaction of superstrong fields with conductors. In the course of experiments, a field with a record induction for laboratory conditions was achieved, and theoretical studies describing nonlinear diffusion of the superstrong field into conductors, phase transition at electric explosion of the surface layer, shock wave and hydrodynamic flow of the medium initiated by the megagauss field were carried out. Many results of this multi-year cycle of research were obtained for the first time. In the studies of recent years, acceleration of the plasma boundary and generation of intense X-ray radiation at electric explosion of wires in vacuum in a superstrong axial field were found.

  Under the leadership of G.A. Shneerson, a number of generators with extremely small inductance were designed and built, including a capacitive accumulator with an energy of 1600 kJ - one of the largest among the installations of this class. Creation of such energy sources, as well as magnetic systems operating at sharply expressed surface effect, required the development of special methods of calculation of fields and transients. In this field he succeeded in obtaining a number of results new for his time (calculation of the boundary effect by the cross-linking method, theory of current distribution in bifilar bus bars and conductive sheets with cuts, solutions of variational problems on minimization of heating of the surface layer of conductors in a pulsed field, optimization of modes of acceleration of conductors by electromagnetic forces, etc.).

  In recent years, a great place in the works of G.A. Shneerson's laboratory has been devoted to the technological application of pulsed fields and electric discharges. At the same time, he continues to work in the field of superstrong fields: he proposed and supported by CRDF and RFBR funds in recent years is developing a new concept in the field of obtaining superstrong magnetic fields, based on the use of solenoids with quasi-bessile windings. This work opens up the possibility of achieving fields with induction above 100 T in non-destructible magnets.

Honored Scientist, researcher, specialist in compressor engineering, Rector of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute 1973-1983

Scientist, engineer, specialist in turbomachinery. One of the founders of the Soviet school of turbine engineering.

Scientist, thermophysicist and power engineer; Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR. Author of STV combustion technology.