Valentin Smirnov

Valentin Panteleimonowitsch Smirnov (Russian Валентин Пантелеимонович Cмирнов, English transcription Valentin Smirnov Panteleimonovich; born October 2, 1937) is a Russian physicist, director of the Department of fusion research at the Kurchatov Institute.

He took his degree in 1961 as a physicist at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology ( MIPT ). In 1981 he completed his habilitation (Russian doctorate ).

Under his leadership, the Angara 5-1 pulse mode - Z-pinch in 1984 was built at Troitsker Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research. They used cylindrical shells arrays instead of a simple plasma column. The imploding outer shell collided with the inner shell and thereby generated X-rays irradiated a fusion target. 1989 to 1992 is provided by experiments up to 40 kJ X-ray pulses of 4 ns duration. To also use the idea of ​​special wire assemblies emerged in Troitsk and were further examined by Malcolm Haines at Imperial College in the West. The success of the machine meant that such developments were pursued in the USA until the construction of the Z- machine at Sandia National Laboratories ( Thomas Sanford ).

Smirnov is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1997. In 1981 he was awarded the Soviet State Prize in 1997 and the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

In 2005 he was awarded the Hannes Alfvén Prize - Malcolm Haines and Thomas Sanford for their development of wire arrays ( multi -wire arrays) in the Z -pinch facilities. In 2002 he received the Jesse W. Beams Research Award.