Mints, Aleksandr

Born Dec. 27, 1894 (Jan. 8, 1895), in Rostov-on-Don. Soviet physicist and radio engineer. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958; corresponding member, 1946); Hero of Socialist Labor (1956).

Mints graduated from the Don University in 1918. He later attended the Moscow Institute of Communication Engineering, graduating in 1932 and becoming a professor in 1934. Mints directed the designing and construction of high-power radio stations, including the A. S. Popov station (1927), the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions station (1929), the Comintern station (1933), the RV-96 station (1938), and the Kuibyshev station (1943). From 1957 to 1970, Mints was in charge of the Institute of Radio Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1967 he was appointed chairman of the Scientific Council for Problems of Charged-Particle Acceleration of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His main works are devoted to the theory and methods of designing modulation systems for radiotelephony, the development of methods for obtaining high power in radio broadcasting, the creation of new systems of directional antennas for high-power longwave and shortwave radio stations, the design of high-power demountable oscillator tubes, the development of new methods of radio measurement, and the use of radio engineering and electronics in charged-particle accelerators. Mints participated in the development and design of the accelerators of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and directed the development, design, and construction of linear accelerators—the proton injectors and radio-electronic systems of the accelerators at Moscow and Serpukhov (76 giga-electron volts, 1967).

Mints has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1946, 1951), the Lenin Prize (1959), the A. S. Popov Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1950), four Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and several medals.