Russian academician Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov is a scientist who has achieved outstanding success in the physical fields. He devoted his scientific career to the study of non-ideal plasma, high energy densities, and the mechanics of detonation and shock waves. Now he holds the post of president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Education
Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov was born on January 23, 1946 in Noginsk. In 1962, he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The circumstances of the entry of the applicant into the physics and technology department are quite curious. At the Fort school, he did a lot of sports, including playing for the basketball team of the RSFSR. Therefore, Vladimir did not think about the future university, as the quota could get to almost any institution out of competition.
In the summer, when peers purposefully prepared for entrance exams, Fortov carelessly spent free time at his relatives' cottage near Dolgoprudny (where MIPT is located). In fizteh his friend called. The applicant decided to pass the exams "on trial", just to practice. Once in MIPT by chance, Fortov ultimately decided to go there.
The young man was at the faculty of aerophysics and space research. Already in his second year, he began his scientific work. The student’s leader was a thermal physicist and mechanic, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vitaly Ievlev.
Graduate school
Fortov defended his thesis ahead of schedule (it was devoted to the thermodynamic problem of Fermi-Zeldovich). The student graduated from high school and was at a crossroads. As a native of Noginsk, he did not have a Moscow residence permit and, according to the rules, had to go to Vladivostok by distribution. Before leaving, the Forts spoke for the last time at a scientific symposium. There, a scientist began to ask him questions. According to the memoirs of Vladimir Evgenievich, he answered “impudently”. A dispute ensued, and after the speech, the scientist invited the young physicist to develop the topic in a new scientific work. Fortov complained that he needed to leave for Vladivostok. Then his interlocutor (it was one of the father's atomic bombs, Yakov Zeldovich) asked the Nobel laureate Nikolai Semenov to give the young man an apartment in Moscow, which would solve the problem of registration and distribution. And so it was all done. Fortov remained in the capital and became a graduate student at MIPT.
This time, the Department of Physical Mechanics turned out to be native to the young specialist. In 1971, Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov defended his thesis and received the degree of candidate of science. In his next work, a physicist considered the results of his own studies of imperfect plasma and shock waves.
Scientific research
After defending his dissertation, Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov began working at the Institute of Chemical Physics, the Institute of Chemical Physics. There, a young specialist was recommended by Yakov Zeldovich.
At the Institute of Chemical Physics, Fortov continued to study the extreme conditions of matter and shock-compressed plasma. The results of this work became the basis of the doctoral dissertation. Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov defended her in 1976. In the same period, the scientist began a fruitful collaboration with Lev Altshuler.
Work in the space industry
Vladimir Fortov was engaged not only in plasma research. He was interested in shock-wave loading of various materials and their kinetic, strength and thermomechanical characteristics in such conditions. The scientist studied and looked for new mechanisms of fracture and deformation that arise with increased dynamic stress. The unique information and experience gained from these studies proved to be extremely necessary in the 1980s with the advent of Vega, the International Space Program, in the framework of which Halley's comet was studied .
The probes needed effective protection against meteorite impacts. This problem was precisely in the sphere of competence of Vladimir Fortov and his partners. Scientists have developed not only shockproof protection for probes, but also dustproof scientific instruments. All of them, once in space, coped with their task. In the study of shock phenomena, the Soviet defense complex was interested. In the mid-1980s, Forts Vladimir Evgenievich, together with his Tomsk and Novosibirsk colleagues, conducted many studies related to the protective properties of materials used in the production of special equipment.
Experiences and discoveries
Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich collaborated with many scientific centers during his research. The biography of the scientist is in varying degrees connected with the Institute of High Temperatures and the Institute of General Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the latter, Vladimir Fortov conducted experiments with pulsed laser beams, thanks to which it was possible to compute computational models associated with space meteorites. At the Institute of High Temperatures, he created a rail-tron electrodynamic accelerator.
In the 1980s, Vladimir Fortov began research on the identification of a method for converting explosive energy into energy of electromagnetic radiation important in science. For them, a special facility was built at the IHF, in which in 1987 it was possible for the first time to obtain multi-megawatt pulses characteristic of microwave radiation. The main inspirer of these successes was Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich. Nationality, age, and his other characteristics faded before the trace that he left in Soviet science.
Continuation of research
At the initiative of Vladimir Fortov, in 1986, research on high-temperature thermal physics began at the Institute of High Temperatures. Thanks to the work done, stands appeared necessary for experiments with high pulse pressure and temperature. Soon, applied and fundamental research was carried out on them , the object of which was the properties of substances that were in an extreme state.
For the study of brittle materials by Fortov, they created a unique spherical explosive chamber (the building of its kind was the largest in the world). This equipment is still in use. The camera and other similar installations fell into the Institute of Thermophysics of Extreme States, where a special Center appeared at the RAS, specializing in all kinds of explosions.
Experimenter
The unique merit of Vladimir Fortov as a scientist lies in the fact that he created a completely new field of physical science - the dynamic physics of dense plasma. For this, he received the Percy Bridgman Award. The scientist was noted at home. In 1987 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1991 - a member of the newly created Russian Academy of Sciences.
In the 1990s, Vladimir Fortov developed his own work on the study of liquids and plasma crystals. Now he had at his disposal not only familiar laboratories, but also the Mir orbital complex, as well as the International Space Station. These studies have become pioneering. They were carried out in a wide range of pressures and temperatures. We used such media as direct current glow plasma, nuclear-excited plasma, plasma induced by ultraviolet radiation, beam plasma, etc.
Watching Science
Vladimir Fortov began to occupy responsible state and academic posts during the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a new Russia. These were difficult years, and the scientist did everything in his power to nullify the negative trends in Russian science. He headed the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.
The physicist also ended up in the government of the Russian Federation, where he became deputy chairman of the State Committee for Science. During the transitional period for Russian science, Vladimir Fortov spoke a lot in the media, wrote articles and defended the country's academic interests in every way. Thanks to his efforts, the MVS 1000M appeared - a supercomputer capable of conducting a trillion operations in a second.
Election as President of the RAS
In 2013, the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held. At this event, a new head of the RAS was elected. In addition to Fortov, Alexander Nekipelov and Zhores Aleferov claimed the position. More than 1300 people participated in the voting. According to its results, Vladimir Evgenievich Fortov won. The President of the RAS scored 58% of the vote.
Having chosen such an important academic position, Vladimir Fortov went on a turning point in his scientific career. The status and employment of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences do not allow, as before, research. Many criticized the scientist for his "bureaucratic" choice.
Fortov himself explained his decision by saying that, having become president, he, from his point of view, will be able to bring much greater benefit to Russian science. His election program was based on the idea of reorganizing the RAS. Many at the Academy came to the conclusion that it was time to carry out a serious reform of Russian science. Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich shared this same point of view. The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences was appointed, expressing the most popular point of view in the academic community of the country.
Passion around the reform of the RAS
A few months after the election of Fortov, the restructuring of the academy began. However, its initiators this time were not scientists, but officials from the Ministry of Education and Science. Because of this, Vladimir Evgenievich had to start a fight against bureaucracy. In his interviews, he noted that he would not allow the RAS to be reformed by officials who had nothing to do with it. The entire world experience, the president of the academy emphasized, shows that such serious academic transformations should be initiated only by the scientists themselves, competent enough in what they are doing.
Fortov called the end of the “barbarism” perpetrated by the minobrom his main achievement in the first stage of his new post. The fact is that, due to economic reasons, the department suggested that the government create a commission on the liquidation of the Academy of Sciences. Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich - President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose contacts were known in high offices, was able to stop this initiative.
Awards and recognition
Vladimir Fortov remains head of the Department of High-Temperature Process Physics at MIPT. The scientist continues to pay much attention to the training of young scientific personnel. Under his leadership, dozens of doctoral and master's theses were defended.
RAS President Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich independently or in co-authorship published two dozen monographs and more than 300 articles in domestic and foreign journals. The scientist became the laureate of international prizes Karpinsky (in 1997), Bridgman (in 1999), Planck (in 2002), Alfvén (in 2003), Duval (in 2005) and Glass (in 2009 .). Also, the physicist is the owner of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree and the Order of Alexander Nevsky. Fortov Vladimir Evgenievich, whose contacts are in the RAS, and today continues his active work for the benefit of Russian science.