Doktor nauk
Oshchepkov was released from the "Gulag" camp in 1946. Returning to academic studies, he eventually earned both the "Kandidat Nauk" (Candidate of Sciences, C.Sc. — approximately the same as the Ph.D.) degree and the "Doktor nauk" (Doctor of Science, Sc.D., habilitation in the West) degree. He never returned to radar research, but found entirely new avenues for his creativity: material science and thermal physics.