Vladimir Yu. Karzhavin turns 75
Vladimir Yurievich Karzhavin grew up in Moscow, in a family of young physicists - Yuri Alexandrovich and Era Nikolaevna. Since childhood, he had been surrounded by interesting people: friends of his parents, scientists and creative personalities of that time. Thanks to this atmosphere, Vladimir from an early age fell in love with science, technology and electronics. This environment determined his path: after school, he entered the Moscow Energy Institute and later, continued the work of his parents as a researcher, having come to work at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in 1979. His story well reflects the spirit of the era of "physicists and lyricists" - when science was not only a profession, but also a real vocation for many people.
The scientific activity of Vladimir Yurievich is focused on the design and automation of electronic systems for coordinate particle detectors. The result of his research in the field of electronics for reading data from proportional chambers was the launch of a set of equipment and automated tuning stands into mass production. This equipment was successfully used in the experiments “Sigma” and “Sphinx” and was also actively operated in Protvino, Dubna and JINR Member States.
A significant milestone in the career of V. Yu. Karzhavin was the participation in the NA4 project. Having joined the work at the data acquisition stage, he made a significant contribution to the launch of control programmes and ensuring the stable, long‑term operation of the muon spectrometer. It allowed physicists to obtain key results on the structure of elementary particles. The experience gained in the international collaboration of NA4 opened the way for the scientist to new electronic developments. With his direct participation, the facility “Anomalon” was promptly launched at the JINR synchrophasotron and a series of investigations of the fragmentation of relativistic nuclei were carried out.
Vladimir Yurievich dedicated his life to high energy physics and the development of complex detectors for experiments, including at the Large Hadron Collider. Since 2021, he has been supervising the scientific topic on the CMS experiment at JINR and heads the corresponding department of VBLHEP.
The main area of his work is the development of "brains" for detectors: electronic systems that allow one to accurately register the trajectories of elementary particles. It was the instruments developed under Vladimir Yurievich for the muon station ME1/1 of the CMS experiment that ensured that incredible measurement accuracy, thanks to which it was possible to discover the famous Higgs Boson in 2012.
Karzhavin is not only a researcher, but also a brilliant organizer. For many years, he has worked at CERN as a representative of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and a permanent coordinator from Russia in the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.
He headed the most difficult stages of equipment assembly and two major upgrades of the system so that it could withstand the colossal loads of the new generation of detectors of the LHC. Colleagues appreciate Vladimir Yurievich not only for his deep knowledge of electronics for physical experiments, but also for personal qualities: calmness, goodwill, responsiveness and reliability.
His merits are recognized worldwide - he is the author of about 1,500 scientific papers and the winner of the Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize for the detailed investigation of the Higgs Boson, the research of new particles, rare processes and the nature of matter and antimatter at the Large Hadron Collider (2025); the European Physical Community High Energy and Particle Physics (EPC HEPP Prize) for Higgs Boson detection (2013); JINR several awards for the development of unique hardware and software systems.
V. Yu. Karzhavin was awarded Departmental Signs "Pioneer of nuclear engineering" and "Veteran of nuclear energy and industry", Certificates of Honor from JINR and Head of the city of Dubna, gratitude from Head of the city of Dubna "For fruitful work", a letter of thanks from Rosatom State Corporation and a Jubilee Medal "300 years of the Russian Academy of Sciences". In 2021, he was awarded the title "Honorary employee of JINR".
In 2021, V. Yu. Karzhavin successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "Development of an experimental complex of the front muon station of the Compact muon solenoid (CMS) facility".
In the scientific community, Vladimir Yurievich is highly respected as a person whose ideas are embodied in real technologies that move world science forward.
Vladimir Yurievich Karzhavin is a person who knows how to unite serious scientific work with a real passion for an active lifestyle. Since his youth, he has been fond of technology: together with his father, he built his first boat and afterwards, became a real professional in water‑motor sports and won extra-long water marathons, was awarded the title of master of water‑motor sports.
In addition, Vladimir Yurievich loves fishing, goes skiing well and feels confident driving a car - he has a lot of driving experience. But the main thing for him is still a family: he is a caring father, grandfather and a wonderful family man.
On the day of the jubilee, we would like to wish him good health, happiness and new achievements both in science and in his favorite hobbies.
A. V. Zarubin, V. A. Matveev, G. V. Trubnikov, S. V. Shmatov,
Friends and colleagues