Jubilees

Academician Igor Meshkov turns 90

On 7 January, the jubilee of a world-famous specialist in the field of physics of charged particle beams, physics and technology of accelerators, high energy physics, plasma physics and radiation techniques of processing materials, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics (1977), Professor (1979), a chief researcher at VBLHEP RAS Academician Igor N.Meshkov is celebrated.

Igor Nikolaevich was born in Moscow on 7 January, 1936. In 1959, he graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University and in the same year, he started working at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, where he went from a senior laboratory assistant to the head of the laboratory. He is one of the outstanding students of G.I.Budker.

Igor Nikolaevich is widely known to the scientific community thanks to development of the electronic cooling technique (together with A.N.Skrinsky, N.S.Dikansky, V.V.Parkhomchuk and others). The ideas and developments proposed by him are still used in electronically cooled charged particle storage in many facilities. Igor Nikolaevich took an active part in the development of electronic cooling systems on the LEAR antiproton storage at CERN, at the Enrico Fermi Laboratory (USA), at the COSY synchrotron at the Julich Research Centre (Germany), at the HIMAC medical synchrotron (Japan).

In 1989, in Lipetsk, under Igor Nikolaevich, a branch of the Institute of Nuclear Physics - the Physics and Technology Centre was founded. The main activity of the Centre was development of the latest technologies using charged particle beams in the field of metallurgical production. In the same Centre, a series of experiments was carried out on radiation-chemical cleaning of gases when they were irradiated with electron beams, investigations of the physics of beam-plasma discharge were carried out, including the injection of an electron beam into ionospheric plasma in rocket experiments using an "on-board" accelerator.

In November 1993, Igor Nikolaevich began working in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. From 1998 to 2003, he worked as a chief engineer in JINR. In the period from 1994 to the present, headed by Academician I.N. Meshkov, a sector for electronic cooling was established at the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems and a staff of qualified physicists was brought up that currently head many scientific areas at JINR. Igor Nikolaevich has carried out a series of unique investigations to develop a source of monochromatic positron beams and a LEPTA accumulator for low-energy positrons cooled using an electron beam. Under the scientific supervision of I.N.Meshkov, JINR currently implements a project for a unique superconducting heavy ion collider NICA. Together with colleagues, he has worked on the development of a technique for optimizing the parameters of the complex, has developed a project and today, there is a physical launch. Under the scientific supervision of I.N.Meshkov, the HILAc linear heavy ion accelerator has been commissioned, work has been successfully carried out to launch Booster and to implement the first experiments with heavy ion beams and electronic cooling on it.

Igor Nikolaevich has taught at Novosibirsk State University since 1963, from 1984 to 1993, he was Head of the Department of General Physics. His textbook on electrodynamics, co-authored with B.V.Chirikov, is widely known. I.N.Meshkov has also taught since 1989 at the Lipetsk Polytechnic Institute, as a professor, head of the department of physics. Since 1995, he has been teaching at the JINR University Centre. In 1998, on the basis of the JINR University Centre, the Department of Electronics of Physical Facilities of the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation was established under him, he is an honorary worker of MIREA. Since 2017, Igor Nikolaevich has been a professor at the Department of Information and Nuclear Technologies of St. Petersburg State University.

In 1991, I.N.Meshkov was elected a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2019 - an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1995 to 2012, Igor Nikolaevich was Chairman of the Science and Technology Council of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the problem of "Charged particle accelerators".

Igor Nikolaevich has supervised 15 Candidates and 5 Doctors of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. His students successfully work in JINR and in leading acceleration centres of the world, head authoritative scientific schools not only in Russia, but also abroad. For many years, I.N.Meshkov has headed the Organizing Committees of Russian and international conferences, schools of young scientists, he is a brilliant speaker, a lecturer and a teacher and recently - an active participant in Internet events dedicated to the popularization of science. His inexhaustible energy has largely determined the modern face of Russian accelerator science. He is the author of more than 500 publications in leading journals and reports at international conferences, a member of the editorial board of the journal "Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei" (Particles & Nuclei).

For many years, he has been fond of mountaineering. In 1962, he became one of the founders of the Mountaineering Club "Vertical" (Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk), in 1968, he was awarded the title of Master of Sports and in 1981 - the title of "Snow Leopard" that is awarded to climbers that have conquered the highest peaks in the territory of the former USSR.

Igor Meshkov 's merits to Russian and world science have been awarded prestigious state awards, the prize of the European Physical Society "For outstanding work in the field of charged particle accelerators". Igor Nikolaevich is a winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2001) for the series of papers "Technique of electronic cooling of beams of heavy charged particles", as well as a winner of the European Physical Society Prize in the field of accelerator technology (2004). He was awarded the Medal "For Labor Valor" in 1985, has the honorary title "Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Moscow Region" (2001) and was awarded the Order of Friendship in 2008. In 2024, he received the gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation for his services in the development of Russian science, many years of fruitful activity.

Colleagues, friends, students congratulate Igor Meshkov on his jubilee, wish him success in his work, good health and many fruitful years of life.

Grigory Trubnikov, Victor Matveev, Yuri Oganessian, Vladimir Kekelidze, Boris Sharkov,
JINR Directorate, DLNP and VBLHEP staffs, JINR employees