Yevgeny Velikhov - a man and a star

The name of the president of the Kurchatov Institute Yevgeny Velikhov is closely related to nuclear physics which he has been engaged in for more than half a century. On February 2^nd he celebrates his 75^th birth anniversary.

His friends and colleagues call Yevgeny Velikhov "thermonuclear" behind his back, not only for his work, which is related to thermonuclear synthesis, but also owing to his meteorical career. He graduated from the faculty of physics at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1958 and began his work as a junior researcher at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. Ten years later, he was elected Correspondent of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in another 6 years Yevgeny Velikhov became the youngest member of the Russian Academy of Sciences at that time. At the age of 40, he was appointed director of the Soviet program on controlled thermonuclear fusion.

Academician Velikhov is sure that thermonuclear energetics with its endless fuel resources, ecological harmlessness and safety, is the thing of the future. Now he is engaged in creating an International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), based on the studies by Russian physicists, particularly his own ones. At present he is coordinating the work of all project's participants.

ITER is being created in Cadarache, France with the EU, Japan, India, China, South Korea, Russia and the USA participating. The EU members haven't yet decided upon which countries will produce the components for the reactor and this is slowing down the process. The main thing is to get the entire work on the thermonuclear reactor going, Yevgeny Velikhov said.

" I was elected chairman of the international Council to arrange the situation. And in general, the progress is obvious - the project is supported by more than half of humanity, dwelling in the ITER member-states".

Yevgeny Velikhov works to a very tight schedule not only on the ITER project, but also at the Academy of Sciences and the Public Chamber of Russia.

He is a scientist on Earth and a star in the great scheme of things. A space object, located at a distance of 32 million kilometers of our planet, was officially named "Minor Planet №3601 Velikhov".