Gleb Konstantinovich Mikhailov

(to the 80-th Anniversary)

 

 

 

S.Ya.Stepanov

A.A.Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of RAS

Vavilova, 40, Moscow, Russia

Professor Gleb Konstantinovich Mikhailov, the Scientific Secretary of the Russian National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, turned 80 (on February 24, 2009).

The USSR National Committee (now the Russian National Committee) on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics was established in 1956 under the guidance of the Academician N.I.Muskhelishvili. G.K.Mikhailov was among his first 48 members, was elected as its first scientific secretary and has since been constantly reelected in that position for over 50 years.

G. K. Mikhailov was born in 1929 in Tbilisi and has since 1935 resided in Moscow. Since childhood he exhibited heightened interest in reading and learning. In 1943 while being a 14 years old evacuee in Tashkent, he gradated from school ahead of schedule and was admitted to the, there evacuated, Moscow Hydromelioration Institute (now Moscow State University of Environmental Engineering). Upon returning to Moscow, in 1948 he graduated with honours from that institute, proceeded with graduate studies which he completed in 1951. In 1952 in the same institute he successfully defended his thesis on water seepage in earth dams. Concurrently, he completed five academic years in the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of the Moscow State University by correspondence.

The subjects of the first scientific works of G.K.Mikhailov during his graduate studies were tied to the works of the Academician P.Ya.Kochina on underground hydrodynamics, and she invited him as he completed his graduate studies in 1951 to proceed with his scientific work at the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1965 the Institute of Mechanics was restructured into the Institute for Problems in Mechanics, to where G.K. Mikhailov moved and had worked full time till 1968 and part time from then on. From 1968 to 1973 G.K. Mikhailov headed the Department of Higher Mathematics of the All-Union Civil Engineering Correspondence Institute. Since the foundation of the VINITI in 1952 G.K. Mikhailov has been actively involved in the publication of the Abstract Journal "Mechanics". In 1961 he joined its editorial board, from 1970 till 1999 he was the deputy chief editor, and in 2000 became its chief editor. In 1973, at the invitation of the Academician L.I. Sedov, G.K. Mikhailov moved to VINITI for full-time position, and has since 1992 headed its Department of Mechanics.

After his first works on underground hydrodynamics the research interests of G.K. Mikhailov shifted largely to the history of mechanics, and in particular to the study of the works of Leonhard Euler. Already during the1956-1958 academic years he gave a course of lectures on the history of mechanics at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of the Moscow State University. G.K. Mikhailov earned the Doctorate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree at the Leningrad University for researching the history of mechanical systems of variable content. In the early 60s he carried out for the first time (with the participation of the Academician V.I. Smirnov) a colossal work on gathering, ordering, describing, and partially publishing Euler's manuscripts stored at the Archives of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In recent years, G.K. Mikhailov regularly travels to Basel for the preparation of subsequent volumes of the "Complete works" (Opera omnia) of L. Euler, as well as, the "Collected works of the mathematicians and physicists of the Bernoulli family". A great contribution G.K. Mikhailov has made for rehabilitating in Russia the reputation of Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky, the Parisian archive of whom he thoroughly investigated during the recent years. In 1984, G.K. Mikhailov was elected a corresponding member and in 2005 - an effective member of the International Academy of the History of Science. In his spare time, G.K. Mikhailov takes a great interest in genealogy. He is a member of the Russian Genealogical Society in St. Petersburg and the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow, and has published a list of descendants of Leonhard Euler and the genealogy of Princes Obolensky. In all, G.K. Mikhailov published over 160 scientific works on underground hydrodynamics, history of mechanics and genealogy.

G.K. Mikhailov is also known by a broad Russian and international scientific community with his scientific organizational work. In the framework of the National Committee he played a key role in organizing and conducting the All-Union Congresses of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (1960, 1964, 1968 - Moscow, 1976 - Kiev, 1981 - Alma-Ata, 1986 - Tashkent, 1991 - Moscow), and the All-Russian Congress (2001 - Perm, 2006 - Nizhniy Novgorod).

It's worthy to cite a brief account of the latest IX All-Russian Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Nizhniy Novgorod, 22-28 August 2006). The Congress was held by the Russian National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics jointly with the Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhniy Novgorod N.I. Lobachevsky State University, with the participation of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, the Institute of Applied Physics, I.I. Afrikantov Special Design Bureau on Mechanical Engineering, Nizhniy Novgorod State Technical University, with support of the Staff of the RF President Plenipotentiary Representative in the Volga Federal District and the administration of Nizhniy Novgorod region, leading research and educational institutions of the city. The chairman of the Congress Organizing Committee was Academician G.G. Chernyi. G.K. Mikhailov was one of the five vice-chairmen. The work of the Congress was held in three sections: General and Applied Mechanics, Fluid and Gas Mechanics, Mechanics of Deformable Solids. The first section included subsections: Analytical Mechanics and Motion Stability, Control and Optimization of Mechanical Systems, Oscillations of Mechanical Systems, Mechanics of Systems of Rigid and Deformable Bodies, Mechanics of Space Flight, Mechanics of Machines and Robots. The second section included subsections: General and Applied Hydrodynamics, General and Applied Gas Dynamics, Hydrodynamical Instability and Turbulence, Physic-Chemical Fluid Dynamics, Hydro-Gas Dynamics of Multiphase Media, Motion of Media with Complex Rheology. The third section included subsections: Theory of Elasticity and Viscoelasticity, Theory of Plasticity and Creep, Waves in Continuous Media, Fracture and Damage Mechanics, Structural Mechanics, Non-Classical Models of Mechanics of Deformable Solids, Mechanics of Contact Interaction. Furthermore, in frame of the Congress there were three complex subsections: Biomechanics, Mechanical Problems on the Natural Processes, Teaching and History of Mechanics. At the Congress opening session four plenary lectures were presented by Academicians V.F. Zhuravlev, D.M. Klimov, V.V. Kozlov and F.M. Mitenkov - a representative of the I.I. Afrikantov Special Design Bureau on Mechanical Engineering. The Congress brought together 1077 participants from 259 institutions of 94 cities and 16 countries, including 1034 Russian participants (226 institutions, including 58 institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from 70 cities), 30 from the CIS countries and 12 from foreign countries. Among the participants of the Congress there were 21 Academicians, 25 Corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 421 Doctors of Sciences, 414 PhD, 287 young scientists. 852 reports (559 oral and 293 posters) were presented at the Congress. The Russian participants presented 536 oral and 284 poster reports.

This generating activity in many respects contributes to reinforcing of Foundation of our country Science in this importance area (Mechanics!), where National Science (Soviet/Russian) was always powerful, for a long time.

Integrity, energy, authority, being highly cultured, well mannered and possessing several foreign languages gave G.K. Mikhailov the opportunity for developing extensive international scientific relations despite the state policy of public isolation at that time. In 1956, after accepting some of the scientists-mechanics of our country in the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) G.K. Mikhailov has actively participated in its activities. From 1974 to 1982 - a member of IUTAM Congresses Committee, and since 1976 a member of its General Assembly. He was the Secretary General of the XIII International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (1972 - Moscow) and had actively participated in organizing and holding on the territory of the USSR IUTAM international symposia on Theory of Non-Linear Vibrations (1961 - Kiev), on Applications of Theory of Functions in Continuum Mechanics (1963 - Tbilisi), on Non-Steady Flow of Water at High Speeds (1971 - Leningrad) and on Shell Theory (1978 - Tbilisi). Since 1957 he has visited more than 20 foreign countries, participated in several international congresses of theoretical and applied mechanics and history of science, as well as numerous scientific symposia and IUTAM meetings. In 1970 as a visiting professor he had given a course of lectures on the groundwater hydrodynamics in the Flinders University (Australia), in 1990 he worked at Royal Society of London, at the invitation of Sir James Lighthill.

Along with the scientific and editorial work in VINITI, G.K. Mikhailov dedicates plenty of time to scientific editorial work for other publishers. Since 1952, he was invited as publishing editor for Gostekhizdat (Fizmatgiz), and later for the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Then, he took up editorial and publishing activities in major international publishers (Springer in Germany, North-Holland in the Netherlands, etc.). G.K. Mikhailov is a member of the editorial boards of several Russian and foreign publications. From 1968 to 1972 he participated in the preparation and publication of three-volumes of "Mechanics in the USSR for 50 years". Since 1982, he is a member of the International Editorial Board of the "Complete Works" of Leonhard Euler (Switzerland).

 

Members of the Editorial Board of the Journal, Members of the Russian National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Representatives of Kazan/Moscow Chetayev School of Mechanic and Stability and the whole scientific community cordially congratulate G.K.Mikhailov with his Anniversary and wish him health, energy, prosperity at home and success in implementing his scientific goals.