Agronomic Physics, Scientific Research Institute of

part of the Ail-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, named after V. I. Lenin and located in Leningrad. It is concerned with the physical problems of farming.

Founded in 1932 on the initiative of Academician A. F. Ioffe, the institute embraced as of Jan. 1, 1969, 18 scientific laboratories, a large computer center, a special design office, and an experimental farm. The institute is working on the mechanism of the action of physical factors on plants; optimization of growth and developmental conditions of plants; substance and energy exchange in the soil-plant-atmosphere system; and controlled systems, including biological objects and technical means of information and control. At the institute a cybernetic tendency is developing in research in plant physiology. Both resident and correspondence graduate students are trained here and have the right of dissertation defense. The institute publishes Sbornik trudov po agronomicheskoi fizike (Collection of Works on Agronomic Physics), issues 1–20, 1935–69; volumes 1 and 2 were published under the title Trudy VASKhNIL (Proceedings of the All-Union Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences), series 12, Soil Science.