25 Facts About Mstislav Keldysh

Mstislav Keldysh was the academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, three-time Hero of Socialist Labour, and fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Mstislav Keldysh was one of the key figures behind the Soviet space program.

Mstislav Keldysh was born to a professional family of Russian nobility.

Mstislav Keldysh's grandfather, Mikhail Fomich Keldysh, was a military physician, who retired with the military rank of General.

Mstislav Keldysh's grandmother, Natalia Mstislav Keldysh, was a cousin of general Aleksei Brusilov.

Mstislav Keldysh's maternal grandfather, Alexander Nikolayevich Skvortsov, was a General of Infantry, and fought in the Caucasian War.

Mstislav Keldysh's father, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Mstislav Keldysh, was a civil engineer, Major General of the Engineering Service, and a full professor, teaching at the Kuybyshev Military Engineering Academy from 1918.

Mstislav Keldysh became a Distinguished Engineering Scientist of the Soviet Union in 1944.

Mstislav Keldysh was one of the authors of contemporary methods for calculating the strength of reinforced concrete, and a designer of the Moscow Canal and Moscow Metro projects.

Several members of the Mstislav Keldysh family were victims of political repressions.

In 1935 Mstislav Keldysh's mother was arrested but was released after a few weeks.

Mstislav Keldysh obtained employment at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute under Mikhail Lavrentyev and Sergey Chaplygin.

In 1937 Mstislav Keldysh became Doctor of Science with his dissertation entitled Complex Variable and Harmonic Functions Representation by Polynomial Series, and was appointed a Professor of Moscow State University.

Mstislav Keldysh got his first Stalin Prize in 1946 for his works on aircraft auto-oscillations.

Mstislav Keldysh headed the Department of Applied Mechanics of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics.

Mstislav Keldysh created the Calculation Bureau that carried most of the mathematical problems related to the development of nuclear weapons.

In 1955 Mstislav Keldysh was appointed chairman of the Satellite Committee at the Academy of Science.

In recognition of his contribution to the problems of defense Mstislav Keldysh was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour and the Lenin Prize.

In 1961 Mstislav Keldysh was elected President of the Academy of Sciences and kept this position for 14 years.

Mstislav Keldysh was 67 when he suddenly died on June 24,1978.

Mstislav Keldysh was honoured with a state funeral and his ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on Red Square.

Mstislav Keldysh was a member of many foreign academies of sciences, including the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and Romanian Academy of Sciences.

Mstislav Keldysh was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Royal Society of Edinburgh, foreign corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences, and Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig.

Mstislav Keldysh was awarded the Stalin Prize, Lenin Prize, six Orders of Lenin, three other orders, numerous medals and four foreign orders.

The crater Keldysh on the Moon, and the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh are named after him.