12 / 23
Page 66
Journal of Astrophysics & Aerospace Technology | ISSN: 2329-6542 | Volume 6
Planetary Science and Particle Physics
International Conference on
August 27-28, 2018 | Boston, USA
Joseph Shklovsky - The Best Russian Astrophysicist
Vladimir G Kurt
P N Lebedev Physical Insitute, Russia
J
oseph Shklovsky was born on 1 July 1916 in a small Ukranian town Glukhov. He finished school in 1932 and in 1933 he entered
Physical-Mathematical faculty of Vladivostok State University. After the 2-d year he was transferred to the Optic Department of the
Physical Faculty of the Moscow State University which he graduated in 1938. The same year he took a Postgraduate at the Sternberg
Astronomical Institute where he worked his whole life. He became a Professor and since 1969 he was the Head of the Astrophysical
Department in the Space Research Institute. He made outstanding works almost in all the fields of modern astrophysics. He was
the first to show the possibility of observing the neutral Hydrogen in the Galaxy in the line 21 cm. He made outstanding works in
cosmology, planetary astronomy and cosmogony. Shklovsky was a brilliant lecturer. He lectured at Astronomical Department of the
Physical Faculty of the Moscow State University various courses: “General Astronomy”, “Radio Astronomy”, “Quantum Mechanics”,
and many professors in different universities in Russia, the USA and Europe were his students. He solved the problem of genetic
relationship of low-mass stars of the Sun type, red giants and planetary nebulae. He calculated wavelengths and the intensity of radio
lines of OH and other molecules in the interstellar medium. He was the first to identify the spectrum of the Earth atmosphere glow.
Three of his students were elected members of the Russian Academy of Sciences and more that 20 became doctors and proffesors.
He was a good specialist in the history of discovering of South and Central America, as well as in Japanese history. Shklovsky was
an erudite and a remarkable artist. He was a specialist in literature and poetry. Being a free man, he struggled against anti-semitism
in the USSR and persecution of dissidents. Therefore for many years he couldn’t travel abroad and take part in the international
conferences. He was elected the member of Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain, the member of the American Academy of
Sciences and Art, an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, an Honorary professor of Paris University.
Pacific Astronomical Society of the USA awarded him with Bruce golden medal (1972). He is the author of more than 300 articles
published in “Nature”, Astrophysical Journal, Month. Noth., Astronomical Journal and other Russian and international journals. He
died on 3 March 1968, a few months before his 70s anniversary.
vkurt@asc.rssi.ruJ Astrophys Aerospace Technol 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2329-6542-C2-021