DMITRII IVANOVICH BLOKHINTSEV (on his 60th Birthday)

On January ii, 1968, the outstanding Soviet Physicist Drnitrii Ivanovich Blokhintsev completed the 60th year of his life. His work in the field of theoretical physics has earned recognition in our country and abroad. D.I. Blokhintsev is known not only as a theoretical physicist. His versatile activity was also directed to creating young scientific teams, to coordinating scientific work, and to the philosophical prob- lems of physics. He is also active in the public political life of the country.

In 1926, D.I. Blokhintsev entered the physics department at Moscow University, where at that time lectures were held by L.I. MandePshtam, S.I. Vavilov, and I.E. Tamm. After University he was engaged in post-graduate studies. In 1933 he published his first paper together with Prof. L E. Tamm. This was on the quantum theory of electron knocking-out from metals. The thirties were marked by- the rapid devel- opment of quantum field theory and of the quantum theory of solids. Dmttrii Ivanovieh made an essential contribution to this field of physics. He considered problems such as the temperature dependence of the photo effect in pure metals, the motion of the electrons in the crystal lattice, the phosphorescence of solids, etc. In 1934, D.I. Blokhintsev defended his doctor's dissertation, and in 1936 he became Professor of theoretical physis and began his work at the physics department of Moscow University. He lectures and works with the degree and post-graduate students. Many of his pupils have become independent scientists. At present, Dmitrii Ivanovich leads the department of nuclear theory and is a member of the Scientific council of Moscow State University.

From 1935 on, together with his teaching at the University, D.I. Blokhintsev worked as chief scientif- ic collaborator at the P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences, USSR. In the years from 1935-1941 he published about 20 papers on various problems of theoretical physics: fluorescence theory, theory of the color of dielectric and semiconductor crystals, the Nelson theory of semiconductors, theory of absorption in heteropolar crystals, etc. In these years he was also actively engaged in the studies at the Kiev Physics Institute. In 1938, D.I. Blokhintsev became a Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

During the war, Dmitrii Ivanovich put all his energy into defense problems and was awarded the Lenin prize for his work in this field. He carried out research on prob- lems of acoustics. His results were then presented in the monograph NAcoustics of Moving Media. " In 1944 he brought out his course "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" which afterwards was worked over into the textbook" Funda- mentals of Quantum Mechanics. ~ This work brought him the first class State prize, Up to now it has been published in five languages and is well known all over the world.

In 1943, Dmitrli Ivanovich Blokhintsev became a member of the Communist Party. After the war he worked in the fields of atomic and nuclear physics. When, by suggestion of I.V. Kurchatov, the first atomic power plant was begun, Dmitrii Ivanovich became director of the sci- entific research laboratory which was entrusted with the theoretical and practical problems of reactor design. After the atomic power plant had been successfully com- pleted and put into operation in 1954, Dmitrii Ivanovich received the first class State prize.

Under the supervision of D.I. Blokhintsev, a fast reactor was designed and constructed at Obninsk. Dmitri~ Ivanovich helped also to work out efficient methods of ca l - culating in te rmedia te r eac to r s .

Trans la ted f rom Atomnaya t~nergiya, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 59-60, January, 1968.

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The yea r s at Obninsk (1950-1956) were very fruitful. The Institute of Physics and Power Engineering which was founded under the supervision of D.I. Blokhintsev at the atomic power plant is now one of the wor ld ' s leading institutes in the field of nuclear power engineering.

For his scientific and social activity, D.I. Btokhintsev received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in 1956.

At the proposal of the Soviet government, an All-Union Institute of Nuclear Research was organized in 1956. Its aim was to combine the efforts of the scientists of all socialist countries in the research on the nature of the elementary particles. The greatest scientists of the Soviet Union were entrusted with the supervision of the laboratories of the Institute: academicain N.N. Bogolyubov (at present director of the All-Union Institute of Nuclear Research), the late academician V. L Veksler, and the Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSI~, M.G. Meshcheryakov, G.N. Flerov, and I.M. Frank. In March~ 1956, the committee of the authorized representatives of the member countries unanimously chose Dmitrii Ivanovich Blokhintsev to be first director of the All-Union Institute of Nuclear Research.

From that time on, D.I. Blokhintsev was even more active than before. Apart from the supervision of the Institute he was engaged in much scientific and social work and he participated in the activity of international organizations. During the time when D. I, Blokhintsev was director (1956-1965) the Institute became a very large scientific research center and a school for the scientific teams of the socialist count- ries. No important scientific international measure involving problems of elementary particle physics is taken without consulting the All-Union Institute.

The scientific interests of Dmitrii Ivanovich are at present focussed mainly on elementary particle theory. He publishes papers on the structure of the elementary particles, the limits of quantum electro- dynamics, high energy particle interaction problems, and he studies the essential problems of the space- time theory. His greatest interest is now raised by problems of a nonlocal field theory. Dmitrii Ivanovich headed the organization committee of the international conference on nonlocal field theory which was held at Dubna in July 1967. The conference met with great interest for the world's scientific public, hence show- ing the importance of work in this direction.

D. L Blokhintsev confines himself in his work not only to problems of theoretical physics and engineer- ing, but he is also engaged with philosophical problems (methodology of modern physics).

D.I. Blokhintsev is also active in world security. He is a member of the Soviet world security com- mittee.

The wide scientific and social activities of Dmitrii Ivanovieh have found international appreciation. In 1957 he received the title of honorary doctor from the Technical University at Prague, in 1958 he be- cm~e Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in 1959, the Karl Marx University at Leipzig (German Dernocratic Republic) conferred on him the title of honorary doctor of the natural sci- ences, in 1960 he was chosen member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1965 he became a member of the ~Leopoldina ~ Academy (German Democratic l~epublic).

Dmitrii Ivanovich is adviser to the Scientific Council of the Secretary General of the UN. In 1966 he became president of the International Organization IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics at the UNESCO).

At present, Dmitrii Ivanovich works as director of the theoretical physics laboratory of the All-Union Institute of Nuclear Research.

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