Northern Caucasus Higher School Scientific Center SKNTs

a scientific center affiliated with the ministries of higher and specialized secondary education of the USSR and the RSFSR. The USSR’s first regional complex of higher school-based scientific institutions, it was founded in 1969 by the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR On the Development of Scientific Institutions in certain Economic Regions of the RSFSR.

The SKNTs organizes fundamental research in the natural and social sciences, deals with problems related to the accelerated economic and industrial growth of the Northern Caucasus, trains scientific personnel, and coordinates research carried out in higher educational institutions and in the scientific institutions of ministries and departments.

The SKNTs seeks to coordinate scientific research, teaching, and the training of specialists. It deals chiefly with mining, geology, chemistry, biology, solid-state physics, continuum mechanics, and cybernetics. The center also concerns itself with the natural resources, history, and culture of the Northern Caucasus.

The SKNTs is directed by a committee composed of rectors of higher educational institutions and directors of scientific institutions. Methodological and organizational work is carried out through a system of departments, each specializing in a branch of science, and by commissions dealing with specific scientific problems and by scientific councils. As of 1975, the center embraced six scientific research institutes, eight laboratories for the study of specific probems, 20 laboratories devoted to various branches of science, a computer center, and a design office.

Institutes at the University of Rostov-on-Don affiliated with the SKNTs are the scientific research institutes of physics (founded 1970), physical and organic chemistry (1970), neurocybernetics (1971), mechanics and applied mathematics (1972), and biology (1935). At the Taganrog Institute of Radiotechnol-ogy, the scientific research institute for computer integrated microcircuits (founded 1973) is affiliated with the center. The center also has a patent and license service, a bureau of economic analysis, and development and engineering sections.

As of 1975, the SKNTs was coordinating the scientific work of 44 higher educational institutions and 63 scientific research institutions in Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar and Stavropol’ krais, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, the Severnaia Osetiia ASSR, the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR, and the Dagestan ASSR. The scientists associated with the center included four corresponding members and one academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, seven members of specialized academies of sciences of the USSR, about 780 doctors of sciences, and about 9,000 candidates of sciences.

The SKNTs functions in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and other scientific institutions in accordance with plans of coordination. In 1974, scientists at the center received 278 author’s certificates and 20 patents. The economy benefited from these scientists’ innovations in the amount of 59 million rubles. Under the center’s auspices, scientific personnel are trained in graduate courses of affiliated higher educational institutions (2,800 students in 1975) and through postgraduate and research work carried out at leading higher educational institutions and scientific research institutes. The student’s research is given practical application, as at the Taganrog Institute of Radio Engineering that includes an educational, scientific, and industrial complex composed of a higher educational institution, a scientific research institute, a design office, and an experimental plant.

Since 1973, the SKNTs has published its Proceedings (Iz-vestiia) in three series, for the social, natural, and technological sciences.