Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences
50 YEARS AT THE FOREFRONT OF POWER GENERATION AND THERMOPHYSICS
Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the leading research institute in the fields of high energy densities physics, shock wave physics, thermodynamics databases, numerical simulations and cluster computing, dusty plasma, applied electrodynamics, combustion, green power and many others.
The history of the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences begins in 1960, the year when the High Temperature Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences was set up. During fifty years that passed since that time, the Institute grew up from a small research laboratory at the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering into a major institu- tion of the Division of Energetics, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics, and Control Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences – the leading scientific center of the country in the field of power generation and thermophysics (including the region of high energy densities).
Since January of 2007, the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences is headed by V.E. Fortov, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, renowned scientist in the field of shock waves and detonation, plasma physics, and physical mechanics.
Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS) does research in the following main spheres:
solution of the problems associated with the development of safe and environmentally clean power industry;
research in the field of energy conservation, chemical power generation, raising the efficiency of utilization of fuel, and utilization of renewable sources of energy;
studies into the thermophysical, electrophysical, optical, and dynamic properties of materials and low-temperature plasma;
studies into the processes of heat-and mass transfer and physical gas and plasma dynamics, and of energy conversion;
research in the field of thermophysics of intensive pulsed treatment of matter, and development of methods for generation of high energy densities.
Four major structural divisions have been set up at the Institute in accordance
with the main spheres of its scientific activities, namely:
Reserch center of high energy densities physics;
Reserch center of Physicotechnical Problems in Energetics;
Reserch center of New Energy Problems;
Reserch center of Electrophysics and thermal processes.
JIHT RAS TODAY
The Institute takes part in two Federal target-oriented programs. JIHT RAS participates in 15 projects under the program on Research and Development Activities along the Priority Lines of Development of the Scientific and Technical Complex of Russia for 2007-2012, carries out research studies, and develops competitive technologies in the following fields:
power generation and energy conservation,
nanosystems and materials.
The Institute is involved in 13 projects under the program on Scientific and Scientific and Pedagogical Personnel of Innovative Russia for 2009-2013.
The Institute researchers are active in the field of the following technologies of critical importance:
technologies for ensuring protection and vital activity of population and hazardous objects under the threat of acts of terrorism;
technologies for developing energy-conservation systems of transmission, distribution, and consumption of heat and electrical power;
technologies of nuclear power engineering, nuclear fuel cycle, and safe handling of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel;
technologies of hydrogen power engineering;
technologies of new and renewable sources of energy;
nanotechnologies and nanomaterials;
technologies for producing fuels and energy of organic stock;
technologies for processing and utilization of technogenic formations and waste;
Researchers of the Institute participate in ten programs supervised by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in 12 programs supervised by the Division of Energetics, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics, and Control Systems of the Academy.
The Institute accommodates collective user centers, namely, Moscow regional explosion center and terawatt femtosecond laser complex. The explosion center is based on a spherical explosion chamber which has no analogs in the country.
The Institute has on its staff 450 researchers, including five full members and six corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about 90 doctors and 200 candidates of sciences.
The scientists which were and are still seriously involved in the Institute activities include members of the Academy such as A.E. Sheindlin, V.A. Kirillin, E.P. Velikhov, V.P. Glushko, K.S. Demirchyan, A.I. Leontiev, A.A. Makarov, L.A. Melent'ev, R.Z. Sagdeev, V.P. Smirnov, M.A. Styrikovich, V.E. Fortov, S.I. Anisimov, V.M. Batenin, L.M. Biberman, A.V. Gorinov, A.N. Didenko, G.I. Kanel', A.N. Lagar'kov, P.S. Neporozhnii, O.F. Petrov, B.S. Petukhov, Yu.V. Polezhaev, E.E. Son, E.E. Shpil'rain.
Several leading scientific schools exist at JIHT RAS; young researchers of the Institute hold grants of President of the Russian Federation.
The scientific activities of the Institute researchers over half a century of its existence won a high appraisal and were marked with high State awards and prizes. A.E. Sheindlin, the Institute director, was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. During the last fifteen years, the State Prize of the Russian Federation was received by seven persons (V.I. Borzenko, A.Yu. Varaksin, D.O. Dunikov, A.A. Eryomin, Yu.V. Polezhaev, V.E. Fortov, and K.V. Khishchenko), and the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation – by nine persons (L.V. Al'tshuller, V.P. Efremov, V.M. Zaichenko, E.F. Lebedev, E.V. Nesterov, V.P. Petrovskii, D.S. Sitnikov, V.E. Fortov, and E.V. Chernykh). Ten researchers were given the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation (V.A. Bashkatov, A.V. Kirillin, G.A. Kobzev, E.F. Lebedev, I.L. Mostinskii, A.P. Nefedov, Yu.V. Polezhaev, L.N. Pyatnitskii, V.Ya. Chekhovskoi, and E.E. Shpil'rain), and one researcher – the title of Honored Power Engineer of the Russian Federation (V.M. Maslennikov). Four persons were awarded the Order for Services to Homeland (A.E. Sheindlin, V.E. Fortov, V.M. Batenin, and E.E. Shpil'rain), four persons – the Order of Honor (V.F. Baibuz, V.P. Efremov, V.E. Fortov, and K.A. Yakimovich), and three persons – the Order of Friendship (T.V. Bazhenova, V.A. Bityurin, V.E. Fortov). Medals of the Order for Services to Homeland were awarded to 11 persons (V.S. Vorob'ev, T.S. Il'inskaya, G.I. Kanel', S.P. Malyshenko, S.A. Medin, V.I. Molotkov, G.N. Morozov, G.E. Norman, V.E. Peletskii, E.P. Reshetov, and V.F. Chinnov).
Academician A.E. Sheindlin, Honorary Director of the Institute, and academician A.I. Leontiev were awarded the Global Energy international prize.
Academician V.E. Fortov, Director of the Institute, received international prizes named after A.P. Karpinsky, P. Bridgman, Max Planck, H. Alfven, J. Duval, and Glass; he was also awarded A. Einstein Gold Medal of UNESCO for Achievements in Science and International Collaboration, the French Order of Legion of Honor, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
While following its traditional lines of research, the Institute in recent years has undertaken investigations in new spheres.
Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences
