Mstislav Keldysh | |
|---|---|
Мстислав Келдыш | |
 Keldysh in 1971 | |
| Born | (1911-02-10)10 February 1911 |
| Died | 24 June 1978(1978-06-24) (aged 67) |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Relatives | Lyudmila Keldysh (sister) Pyotr Novikov (brother-in-law) Mstislav Keldysh (nephew) Leonid Keldysh (nephew) |
| Awards |  Hero of Socialist Labour(1956, 1961, 1971) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Steklov Institute of Mathematics |
| Doctoral advisor | Mikhail Lavrentyev |
| Doctoral students | Sergey Mergelyan |
| Signature | |
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Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (Russian:Мстисла́в Все́володович Ке́лдыш; 10 February [O.S. 28 January] 1911 – 24 June 1978) was aSovietmathematician who worked as an engineer in theSoviet space program.
He was theacademician of theAcademy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1946), President of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1961–1975), three-timeHero of Socialist Labour (1956, 1961, 1971), and fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh (1968). He was one of the key figures behind the Soviet space program. Among scientific circles of the USSR Keldysh was known by the epithet "the Chief Theoretician"[1] in analogy with epithet "the Chief Designer" used forSergei Korolev.
Keldysh was born to a professional family ofRussian nobility.[2] His grandfather, Mikhail Fomich Keldysh (1839–1920), was a militaryphysician, who retired with the military rank ofGeneral.[3] Keldysh's grandmother, Natalia Keldysh (née Brusilova), was a cousin of generalAleksei Brusilov. Keldysh's maternal grandfather, Alexander Nikolayevich Skvortsov, was a General of Infantry, and fought in theCaucasian War.
Keldysh's father, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh (1878–1965), was acivil engineer,Major General of the Engineering Service, and a full professor, teaching at theKuybyshev Military Engineering Academy from 1918. He became aDistinguished Engineering Scientist of the Soviet Union (Заслуженный деятель науки и техники СССР) in 1944. He was one of the authors of contemporary methods for calculating the strength ofreinforced concrete, and a designer of theMoscow Canal andMoscow Metro projects.
Several members of the Keldysh family were victims of political repressions. In the 1930s Keldysh's uncle was sent to alabor camp on theWhite Sea–Baltic Canal construction site. In 1935 Keldysh's mother was arrested but was released after a few weeks. It was a part of the campaign of collecting gold from the population, but after Keldysh's father brought all the jewelry the family had, the unsatisfiedNKVD officer returned "all this garbage" back.[4] Keldysh's brother Mikhail, a historian who specialized inMedieval Germany, was arrested in 1936 and executed in 1937 on suspicion of being a German spy. In 1938 another of Keldysh's brothers, Alexander, was arrested as a French spy. Alexander was spared because of the slight liberalization of the repressions during the transfer of the NKVD leadership fromNikolai Yezhov toLavrentiy Beria, and was acquitted in the court.
The strongest influence on Keldysh was his older sister,Lyudmila Keldysh (1904–1976), a mathematician and Keldysh's first teacher. Among her children areLeonid Keldysh, director ofLebedev Physical Institute andSergei Novikov, a mathematician.
Keldysh was born in 1911 inRiga. When he was four the family evacuated toMoscow during theFirst World War. In the first years of theSoviet Union he was refused entrance to an Institute of Civil Engineers because of his attachment to a noble family. Later, he managed to enter and graduate from thePhysics andMathematics department of theMoscow State University. He obtained employment at theCentral Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) underMikhail Lavrentyev andSergey Chaplygin.
Working at TsAGI he explained the auto-oscillation effects offlutter (in-flight auto-induced oscillations and structural deformations), andshimmy (auto-oscillation in the nose-wheel of aircraftundercarriages while on the ground). The effects were responsible for many aircraft catastrophes at the time.
In 1937 Keldysh becameDoctor of Science with his dissertation entitledComplex Variable and Harmonic Functions Representation by Polynomial Series, and was appointed aProfessor ofMoscow State University.[5] In 1943 he became a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. He got his firstStalin Prize in 1946 for his works on aircraft auto-oscillations. In 1943 he also became a full member of the Academy and the Director of NII-1 (Research Institute number 1) of the Department of the Aviation Industry. He also headed the Department of Applied Mechanics of theSteklov Institute of Mathematics. In 1966 this department became an independent organization as the Institute of Applied Mathematics. After his death in 1978 it is named after him to become theKeldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics.
During the 1940s Keldysh became the leader of a group of applied mathematicians involved in almost all large scientific projects of the Soviet Union. Keldysh created theCalculation Bureau that carried most of the mathematical problems related to the development ofnuclear weapons. The bureau is also credited with design of the firstSoviet computers. In 1947 he became a member of theCommunist Party.
Keldysh's main efforts were devoted tojet propulsion androckets includingsupersonicgas dynamics,heat andmass exchange, and heat shielding. 1959 saw successful testing of the Soviet firstcruise missileBurya.
In 1954 Keldysh,Sergei Korolev andMikhail Tikhonravov submitted a letter to the Soviet Government proposing development of anartificial satellite to orbit the Earth. The letter was rejected, and the group filed exaggeratedSoviet newspaper articles which influenced American authorities to start satellite programs. This in turn began the effort that culminated in the world's first satellite,Sputnik 1 in October 1957, which marked the beginning of mankind'sSpace Age.[6][7][8] In 1955 Keldysh was appointed chairman of the Satellite Committee at the Academy of Science. In recognition of his contribution to the problems of defense Keldysh was awarded theHero of Socialist Labour (1956) and theLenin Prize (1957). In 1961 he received a second Hеrо of Socialist Labour award for his contribution toYuri Gagarin's flight into space, the first person to orbit the Earth.
In 1961 Keldysh was elected President of the Academy of Sciences and kept this position for 14 years. Concomitantly, he became a member of theCentral Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His last scientific works were devoted to creation of theShuttle Buran. In 1962 he was elected a member of theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
Keldysh was 67 when he suddenly died on June 24, 1978. He was honoured with astate funeral and his ashes were buried in theKremlin Wall Necropolis onRed Square.
Keldysh was a member of many foreign academies of sciences, including theMongolian Academy of Sciences (1961),Polish Academy of Sciences (1962),Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1962), andRomanian Academy of Sciences (1965). He was also an honorary member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (1966),Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1966),Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1970), andRoyal Society of Edinburgh (1968), foreign corresponding member of theGerman Academy of Sciences (1966), andSaxon Academy of Sciences inLeipzig (1966).
Keldysh was awarded theStalin Prize (1942, 1946),Lenin Prize (1957), sixOrders of Lenin, three other orders, numerous medals and four foreign orders.
The craterKeldysh on theMoon, and the research vesselAkademik Mstislav Keldysh are named after him. Aminor planet,2186 Keldysh discovered in 1973 by Soviet astronomerLyudmila Chernykh, is named in his honor.[9]
A street (Akadēmiķa Mstislava Keldiša iela) was named after Keldysh in the district ofPļavnieki in his nativeRiga,Latvia. On 15 December 2022, the street was renamed Brāļu Kaudzīšu Street.[10]
"In 1954 . . . because they knew a lot of Soviet journalists, they flooded the Soviet media with speculative articles on space flight .. cited a lot in the Washington Post and New York Times. July 1955, the Eisenhower administration announces they're going to launch a satellite in a couple of years, it's going to be a scientific satellite
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of theAcademy of Sciences of the USSR 1961–1975 | Succeeded by |
