Kirill Shchelkin
| Kirill Shchelkin | |
|---|---|
 Кирилл Иванович Щёлкин | |
| Born |
17 May 1911 Tbilisi, Georgia |
| Died |
8 November 1968 (aged 57) Moscow, Russia |
| Fields | Detonation, explosives |
| Institutions | Arzamas-16, Chelyabinsk-70 |
| Alma mater | Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University |
| Known for | First scientific director at Chelyabinsk-70 |
Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, originally Metaksyán Kirakós Hovanesí (17 May 1911 – 8 November 1968) was a Soviet scientist involved in the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, particularly the physics of combustion and explosion. He was Armenian Ethnicity.[1][2] He graduated in 1932 from the Crimean Institute in Simferopol and became the department head at Arzamas-16 responsible for the development of shaped explosive charges used in nuclear implosion type weapons. He served as first scientific director at Chelyabinsk-70 from 1955–1960.
Awards and honors
Shchelkin was a Hero of Socialist Labor a total of three times (1949, 1953, and 1956).
Legacy
His name was given to the Shchelkin spiral, a device in a combustion chamber used to facilitate the deflagration to detonation transition.
Town Shchyolkino (Щёлкино) is named after Kirill Shchelkin.
References
Sources
- Cochran, T.; S. Norris (1993). Russian/Soviet Nuclear Warhead Production (PDF). Natural Resources Defense Council (NWD 93-1). p. 191.
- Frank-Kamenetskiĭ, D A (1969). "Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin (Obituary)". Sov. Phys. Usp. 12: 305–306. doi:10.1070/PU1969v012n02ABEH003944.