Iosif Shklovskii

Shklovskii, Iosif Samuilovich 

Born June 18 (July 1), 1916, in Glukhov, in what is now Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Soviet astrophysicist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966).

After graduating from Moscow University in 1938, Shklovskii began working at the Shternberg State Astronomical Institute. In 1968 he began working at the Institute for Space Research of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Shklovskii’s main works deal with the theory of the solar corona, radio astronomy, and X-ray astronomy. In 1948 he investigated the presence of the 21-cm line in the radiation of neutral interstellar hydrogen. In 1953 he explained the properties of the Crab Nebula in terms of the radiation of relativistic electrons in a magnetic field. In 1965 he proposed a new concept of planetary nebulas, linking them to the end of the evolution of red giants and the birth of white dwarfs. In the 1970’s, Shklovskii turned to the study of the nature of galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources.

Shklovskii is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain. Shklovskii received the Lenin Prize in 1960. He has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.

WORKS

Fizika solnechnoi korony, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1962.
Kosmicheskoe radioizluchenie. Moscow, 1956.
Vselennaia, zhizn’, razum, 4th ed. Moscow, 1976.
Zvezdy: ikh rozhdenie, zhizn’ ismert’. Moscow, 1975.
Sverkhnovye zvezdy. Moscow, 1976.

REFERENCE

“Iosif Samuilovich Shklovskii (k 60-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia).” Zemliai Vselennaia, 1976, no. 4.

V. G. KURT