Inr. J. Hear Mass TransJer.

Vol. 17, pp. 1285-1286.

Pergamon Press 1974.

Printed in Great Britain

OBITUARY
ALEKSANDRSAVVICH PREDVODITELEV
1891-1973

THE DEATH on December 27,1973 of Aleksandr Savvich
Predvoditelev,
prominent Soviet physicist, Doctor of
Physical and MathematicalSciences, Professor
ofMoscow University, State Prize Winner, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences,
Member of Honorary Editorial Advisory Board of theInternational Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
deprived the heat- and mass-transfer
community
anoutstanding teacher and researcher.
Professor
A. S. Predvoditelev
was born on 11
September 1891 in the village of Burkino, the former
Ryazan Province. After hisgraduationfrom the Ryazan
Secondary School he entered the Physical and Mathematical Faculty of Moscow University.
In 1919 Professor Predvoditelev
successfully passed
Master’s examinations
and, on delivering two test
lectures, got the right to teach at the Physical andMathematical
Faculty of Moscow University.
Thisconnection he maintained until the time of his passing.

Between 1919 and 1930 he worked at the ResearchInstitute of Physics and Biophysics headed by theoutstanding Russian physicist P. P. Lazarev. _From 1920 to 1923 he was a teacher at the Bauman
Higher Engineering School. In 1930 he was nominatedProfessor and Head of the Chair of Thermal Physics atMoscow State University. From 1929 to 1937 ProfessorPredvoditelev
was a consultant and then to 1952, ascientific director of the Physical and Engineering
Laboratory of the Dzerzhinsky All-Union Institute ofThermal Engineering where extensive theoretical andexperimental works were carried out concerned withsolid fuel, hydrodynamicsof two-phasesystems,
thermodynamicand transport properties of water andviscous vapour and of many other thermophysicalproblems.
From 1937 to 1946 Professor Predvoditelev
wasDean of the Physical Faculty of Moscow University
where he devoted himself to research and teaching. In1285

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Obituary

1938 at the Power Engineering Institute of the USSR
Academy of Sciences Professor A. S. Pr~dvoditeIev
organized Problem Laboratory
on Combustion
Physics and was Head of the laboratory to 1967. The
experimental results on heterogeneous combustion
obtained at this laboratory were summarized in themonograph ‘Coal Combustion” awarded with theState Prize in 1950.
Professor Predvoditelev contributed much to thepreparation of launching the first space vehicles. Oneof the main results of his works in this field are thedetailed tables of gas dynamic and thermodynamic
values of air up to 20000°K and of pressures between
04lOi and 16OOatm published from 1957 to 1962. In
1962 the Kr~hi~anovsky Power ~nginee~ng Institute
was awarded with a special medal in honour of thelaunch of the first man-made satellite of the Earth for
the works carried out by Professor Predvoditelev andhis group.
Professor Predvoditelev obtained fundamental re-sults in the field of substance state, hydrodynamics,
physics of combustion and explosion, physics of solids,
physical acoustics of small and finite amplitudes,physical chemistry, and physics of discontinuousprocesses. He wrote more than 200 scientific works.
Professor Predvoditelev was a talented teacher ofresearch workers. The wide scope of his knowledge
and erudition, high demands and principles, profoundperception of physical processes, unquestionable
natural gifts, and high morals contributed much to thedevelopment and success of the organizations headedby him. His scientific, teaching, administrative andpublic activity was widely recognized and rewarded
with numerous Government awards.
His modesty, simpli~ty, tactfulness and kindness topeople won merited love and respect of all who knew
him. He was fond of sports and painting.
The decease of the famous Soviet scientist Aleksandr
Savvich Predvoditelev causes deep regret among thescientific community.