Petr Strelkov

Born Oct. 4 (16), 1899, in St. Petersburg; died Nov. 11, 1968, in Novosibirsk. Soviet physicist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960).

Strelkov studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Petrograd from 1920 to 1923. In 1923 he began working at the Physicotechnical Institute, and from 1936 to 1956 he worked at the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Strelkov worked at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Measurements in Physics, Technology, and Radio Engineering from 1956 to 1959, when he took up a position at the Institute of the Physics of Heat of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From 1938 to 1946 he also taught at Moscow State University.

Strelkov’s main research was in solid-state physics, thermodynamics, and thermometry. He investigated aspects of the thermal expansion of ionic crystals near the melting point, properties of liquid helium at temperatures below the λ-point, and thermodynamic properties of substances at low temperatures. In addition to creating precision instruments for these studies, he developed a practical temperature scale from 10° to 90°K. Strelkov developed the technology for the production of bacteriological filters, for which he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1943. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.