Nikolai Melnikov

Born Feb. 15 (28), 1909, in Sarapul, present-day Udmurt ASSR. Soviet mining scientist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1962; corresponding member, 1953); Honored Worker in Science and Technology of the RSFSR (1960). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

After graduating from the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute in 1933, Mel’nikov worked in various capacities in the mining industry. He has been a professor at the Academy of the Coal Industry (1950-56), deputy director and director of the A. A. Skochinskii Mining Institute (1955-64), chairman of the State Committee on the Fuel Industry of the USSR (1961-65), a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1966), and director of the sector for physico-technical problems of mining at the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1967). Mel’nikov’s main works deal with the theory of open-pit mining of deposits, control of blast action in mined rock, and methods of engineering-economic analysis and forecasting of developments in mining engineering. Mel’nikov is the originator of new systems for open-pit mining of deposits, methods for engineering calculations in mining and blasting work, and a method for increasing the efficiency of blasting in rock. He was a deputy to the sixth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He received the State Prize of the USSR (1946) and was awarded the Order of Lenin, four other orders, and medals.