Andrey Anatolyevich
Bochvar
1902-1984
Andrey Anatolyevich Bochvar was an outstanding Soviet scientist, specialist in the field of metallurgy, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Director of the All-Union Research Institute of Inorganic Materials of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was born in Moscow in the family of the famous metallologist A.M. Bochvar (1870-1947). In 1923 he graduated from the Chemical Faculty of Moscow Higher Technical School and began teaching there. Since 1930 he worked at the Moscow Institute of Non–Ferrous Metals and Gold (since 1931 – a professor). In 1923-1924 he improved his education at the University of Göttingen (Germany). Since 1947 he worked at the All-Union Research Institute of Inorganic Materials of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1952 – the Director), at the same time since 1961 – at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. In 1935, he defended his dissertation for the degree of the Doctor of Technical Sciences on the topic “Study of the crystallization process of eutectic-type alloys” (the country’s first doctoral dissertation on metallology). On January 28, 1939 he was elected as a corresponding member, and on November 30, 1946 – a full member (Academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1946 he was involved in the work on the Uranium project and worked at plant No. 12 in Elektrostal, and then was transferred to the Research Institute-9. In 1948 he was appointed as the head of the department and scientific director of plant “B” at Plant No. 817 for the production of metallic plutonium. In 1948-1949, under his scientific supervision, an alloy of plutonium with specified technical characteristics was obtained at the plant “B” of Combine No. 817. Details of the first nuclear bomb were obtained from it. In 1949 the first Soviet nuclear (atomic) bomb RDS-1 was successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan).
Address: Moscow, Tverskaya str., 9
