Valery Alekseevich
Legasov
1936-1988
Valery Alekseevich Legasov was the Deputy Head of the Government Commission for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident, Deputy Director of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy for Scientific Work, Head of the Department of Chemical Technology of the Chemical Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Hero of Russia. He was in postgraduate studies at the Department of Molecular Physics of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy since 1962, then there he was a junior and senior researcher, head of the laboratory. He was awarded the honorary title of «Inventor of the State Committee for the Use of Atomic Energy of the USSR». From March 2, 1983 until the end of his life 1936-1988 Valery Alekseevich Legasov was the Head of the Department of Chemical Technology of the Chemical Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. With the arrival of Valery Alekseevich Legasov the formation of new scientific directions began at the Department of Chemical Technology of Moscow State University, in which the youngest employees of the department and students who completed term papers and theses on one of the new scientific directions – risk assessment, research of safety problems of complex technological systems actively participated. Many of these works were awarded prizes by the University Administration and the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. He was directly involved in the work on the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power Plant (Chernobyl NPP). On April 26, 1986, by order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 830, as a part of a Government commission, he flew to Chernobyl (he was in the city of Pripyat, two kilometers from the collapse of the 4th block of the Chernobyl NPP). At a special meeting of the IAEA, held in Vienna from August 25 to August 29, 1986, which brought together more than 500 technical experts, among whom were the largest specialists in energy, atomic physics, safety and medicine from 62 countries and 21 international organizations, the Soviet delegation headed by the First Deputy Director of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy Academician V. A. Legasov, presented a detailed report on the Chernobyl accident. On April 27, 1988, after the second anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Academician V. A. Legasov was found hanged in his office. In 2001, Secondary school No. 56 in Moscow was named after the Hero of Russia Academician V. A. Legasov.
Address: Moscow, Kutuzovsky Ave., 22, building 1
