Malmeister, Aleksandr Kristapovich

(also A. K. Mālmeisters). Born Oct. 5 (18), 1911, in Peterūpe Volost, now Riga Raion. Soviet scientist in mechanics; statesman. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970); academician (1958) and president (since 1970) of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR. Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). Member of the CPSU since 1942.

Malmeister graduated from Latvian University in 1937 and worked there from 1945 to 1953. He served in the Soviet Army from 1941 to 1945. From 1953 to 1961 he was the director of the Institute of Structural Engineering and Architecture of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR; from 1963 to 1970, director of the Institute of Polymer Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR; and from 1961 to 1963, rector of the Riga Polytechnic Institute.

Malmeister developed a theory of locality deformations that makes possible the solution of problems concerning loading of shells, plates, and rods. He also proposed engineering methods for calculating structures made of certain polymer materials and methods for predicting their properties. He became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR in 1971. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.