Sergey Lvovich
Sobolev
1908-1989
Sergey Lvovich Sobolev was the Deputy Director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, an Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He was born on September 23 (October 6), 1908 in St. Petersburg in the family of a sworn attorney Lev Alexandrovich Sobolev and a doctor Natalia Georgievna Soboleva. Since 1918, the family lived in Kharkov, where Sergei studied at a technical school, and in 1923 returned to Petrograd. There he finished high school in 1924. In 1924-1925 he studied to play the piano at the 1st State Art Studio. In 1925 he entered, and in 1929 graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Leningrad State University (LSU). He worked at the Seismological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1929-1936), at the same time he taught at Leningrad universities. A long period (since 1932) of Sergey Lvovich Sobolev’s activity was associated with the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in which he worked as the head of the Department (1932-1940, 1944-1957), deputy director (1940-1942) and director (1942-1944); and with the Institute of Atomic Energy (IAE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in which S.L. Sobolev was the deputy director (1945-1958). He was a member of the CPSU (b) since 1940. During the Great Patriotic War, he was evacuated to Kazan, focused on solving defence issues. In particular, he performed a number of works on calculating the accuracy of artillery firing and improving the ballistic data of projectiles. These developments were immediately implemented in production and allowed to increase the firing range up to 10% without changing the design of the guns. A special place in the biography of the scientist is occupied by work in the USSR atomic project, in which he was one of the first involved in 1943 by I.V. Kurchatov. Then he was appointed as the deputy head of Laboratory No. 2 (the future Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences), where he worked until 1956. Since December 1945, he was the Deputy Head of Construction and scientific supervisor of the construction of the first D-1 gas diffusion plant in the USSR (now the Ural Electrochemical Plant). It was put into operation in 1950. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (“closed”) of December 8, 1951, for exceptional services to the state in the performance of a special task, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev was awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Address: Moscow, Akademika Petrovskogo str., 3
