Budnikov, Petr

Born Oct. 9 (21), 1885, in Smolensk; died Dec. 6, 1968, in Moscow. Soviet scientist, specialist in inorganic chemistry and chemical technology of silicates. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1939) and of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1956), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1965).

Budnikov graduated from the Riga Polytechnic Institute in 1911 and from 1918 to 1941 was a professor at higher educational institutions in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Kharkov. In 1944 he became professor at Moscow’s D. I. Mendeleev Chemical Technological Institute. His main works have been devoted to the complex study of the mineral wealth of the USSR and the search for means of using this wealth (cement, chemically stable and refractory materials). Budnikov is the author of monographs containing theoretical generalizations about the chemistry and technology of silicate and oxide materials. A series of theoretical works deals with the study of reactions in the solid phase, diagrams of the states of systems, and the mechanism of sintering and recrystallization of highly refractory oxides and their compounds. Budnikov is responsible for over 90 inventions. He received the State Prize of the USSR (1942, 1950, 1952) and was awarded two Orders of Lenin, five other orders, and various medals.