Traditions of Higher Education in Russia

The country has centuries-old traditions of higher education. The first university in Russia was founded in 1687 and called the Slavonic, Greek, and Latin Academy. The renowned Moscow State University was established by Mikhail Lomonosov in 1755. Since then, many universities have appeared throughout Russia – from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. Russia has given the world a multitude of outstanding intellectuals who have made great discoveries and inventions, and over 40 of them have been awarded the Nobel Prize. Currently, there are 896 universities in 85 regions of Russia that accept international students. You have a unique opportunity to come to Russia and learn about Russian academic traditions.

 

Famous Russian Scientists and their Discoveries

Traditions of Higher Education in Russia

Famous Russian Scientists and their Discoveries

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Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov

Lomonosov made many discoveries in various fields: he is regarded as the first to discover the law of mass conservation (1760) and to establish mechanistic caloric theory and the chemistry of minerals and glass. Lomonosov is the founder of Russia’s first classical university – Moscow State University (1755).

Nikolay Lobachevsky

Nikolay Lobachevsky

The founder of hyperbolic geometry (1829) which was later recognized as a valid alternative to Euclidean geometry. Graduated from Kazan University where he later held the position of professor and then rector.

Pafnuty Chebyshev

Pafnuty Chebyshev

Made several breakthrough discoveries in mechanics and mathematics. Chebyshev designed over 40 mechanisms still used in the modern automotive industry and instrumentation.

Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofia Kovalevskaya

Made a series of discoveries in mathematics. She was awarded the Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for her thesis on integrable rigid body motion (1888).

Aleksander Stoletov

Aleksander Stoletov

Russian physicist who worked in electrical engineering, optics and molecular physics. He designed and constructed the first photoelectric element, a device which transforms the energy of photons into electricity.

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev

Mendeleev formulated the Periodic Law and created his own version of the periodic table of elements (1869). The system that he devised made it possible to correct the properties of some elements that had already been discovered and also to predict the properties of elements yet to be discovered. His discovery is viewed as the most significant contribution to materials chemistry.

Alexander Popov

Alexander Popov

He was one of the first to find practical applications of electromagnetic waves, particularly in wireless communication. He designed and built a state-of-the-art radio receiver that was unique for its time (1895).

Alexander Butlerov

Alexander Butlerov

Butlerov is one of the principal creators of the theory of chemical structure. He was a graduate of Kazan University. Later he taught at St. Petersburg University.

Sergey Botkin

Sergey Botkin

Botkin created the theory of a living organism as a unified whole. He was the first to suggest that catarrhal jaundice (hepatitis) or Botkin’s disease was caused by an infection.

Nikolay Pirogov

Nikolay Pirogov

Pirogov is considered the founder of field surgery, regional anatomy and the founder of the Russian school of anesthesia. Surgery became a science thanks to him.

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov

Pavlov is the founder of physiology of higher nervous activity. He is the first Russian Nobel Prize winner (1904). He received awards for physiology of digestion.

Élie Metchnikoff

Élie Metchnikoff

The founder of comparative pathology, evolutionary fetology and immunology. Mechnikov discovered phagocytosis. Mechnikov is the founder of gerontology. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for his contribution to the study of the immune system (1908).

Alexander Mozhaysky

Alexander Mozhaysky

Mozhaysky was a naval officer and inventor. He designed, built and tested one of the world’s first airplanes (1882).

Nikolay Zhukovsky

Nikolay Zhukovsky

Zhukovsky is the founding father of Russian aeronautics. He is also the founder of modern hydrodynamics. A graduate and later a professor at Moscow State University.

Vladimir Zworykin

Vladimir Zworykin

An engineer and inventor. Born and educated in Russia. One the founding fathers and pioneers of television. He invented the cathode ray tube (1929), iconoscope (1931), electrooptical television system (1933) and laid the basis for colour television (1940s).

Pavel Cherenkov

Pavel Cherenkov

Cherenkov is the author of several groundbreaking discoveries in physical optics, nuclear and high-energy physics. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958.

Nikolay Vavilov

Nikolay Vavilov

Vavilov was a botanist and geneticist, best known for establishing the scientific bases of selection and the study of world centres of the origin of cultivated plants. He is the author of the doctrine of plant immunity.

Lev Landau

Lev Landau

Landau is the author of the “Course of Theoretical Physics”, which has been republished many times in 20 languages. He made major contributions to all spheres of physical science, from quantum mechanics to plasma physics. In 1962 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research of the superfluidity of helium.

Nikolay Basov

Nikolay Basov

One of the creators of the first quantum generator and a range of lasers. Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1964. A graduate of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.

Alexander Prokhorov

Alexander Prokhorov

A inventor of laser technologies. He created a range of lasers. Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1964.

Pyotr Kapitsa

Pyotr Kapitsa

He is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for his discovery of superfluidity of liquid helium. He designed a commercial installation for gas liquefaction. A graduate of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. One of the founders of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Leonid Kantorovich© wikimedia.org / Andrei
Bogdanov

Leonid Kantorovich

A mathematician, economist, and the founder of linear programming. A winner of a Nobel Prize for Economics in 1975.

Nikolay Semyonov© nobelprize.org

Nikolay Semyonov

One of the founders of chemical physics. He is mostly known for his research of chain reactions. A winner of a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1958. He graduated from the department of physics of Petrograd University and taught at Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and Tomsk University. One of the founders of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Igor Kurchatov

Igor Kurchatov

Author of several breakthrough discoveries in nuclear physics. Among them: the first nuclear reactor in Europe, the first Russian A-bomb and the first fusion bomb. In 1954 he was in charge of building the first nuclear power plant in Obninsk, USSR

Andrei Sakharov© Sakharov Centre
sakharov-center.ru

Andrei Sakharov

A pioneer of controlled thermonuclear research. One of the leading figures in the Soviet thermonuclear bomb project (1953). A renowned human rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

Sergey Korolev

Sergey Korolev

Korolev was a leading Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer and is considered by many as the father of practical astronautics. Among his major achievements are the first successful launch of an orbiting satellite (1957) and the first manned space flight of Yuri Gagarin (1961).

Mikhail Mil

Mikhail Mil

Aerospace engineer and scientist. The creator of the ‘Mi’ helicopter series. A graduate of Tomsk Polytechnic Institute.

Andrei Tupolev© tupolev.ru

Andrei Tupolev

Aircraft designer. In 1968, Tupolev introduced the world’s first supersonic airliner, the Tu-144. Over 70 types of aircraft were designed and put into mass production under his supervision.

Svyatoslav Fyodorov© ras.ru

Svyatoslav Fyodorov

An ophthalmologist and microsurgeon. In 1962, in cooperation with Valery Zakharov, he created one of the world’s most rigid intraocular lenses. In 1973, he developed a new surgical technique to treat the early stage of the glaucoma. Consequently his method became widely used.

Zhores Alferov© ras.ru

Zhores Alferov

An author of over 500 scientific papers and around 50 inventions in semiconductor and quantum electronics. In particular, Alferov invented the first stable transistor. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000. A graduate of the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute.

Grigori Perelman

Grigori Perelman

One of the most renowned contemporary mathematicians. He solved the Poincaré conjecture, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems (2002).

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov

Graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Winners of a Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for their study of graphene, the material which is supposed to define the future of electronics.

Yuri Oganesyan© ras.ru

Yuri Oganesyan

Leads research aimed at the synthesis of new chemical elements. From 1999–2010, he and his colleagues were the first to synthesize 6 superheavy elements ahead of their western counterparts.

Alexei Starobinsky© ras.ru

Alexei Starobinsky

A pioneer of the “inflation theory” that explains the birth of the universe. Winner of the Kavli Prize for Astrophysics (2014).

Rashid Sunyaev© RAS

Rashid Sunyaev

One of the authors of the theory currently known as the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect under which electrons associated with gas in galaxy clusters gradually scatter cosmic microwave background radiation. Winner of the Kyoto Prize (2011), an award given for making the world better.

Mikhail Lukin© Lincoln / Harvard News
Office

Mikhail Lukin

Graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Professor at Harvard University. He proved that a beam of light can be halted in an environment and then controlled with a laser. The technology he developed can be used in quantum computers – a new step in the technological development of humanity.

Artem Oganov© Nsu.ru / Sergei
Kovalev

Artem Oganov

A graduate of Lomonosov Moscow State University who worked at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Professor at Stony Brook University (New York). He is known mostly for his work on the discovery of computational materials and crystal structure prediction. He holds numerous prestigious prizes, including an ETH Latsis Prize, Research Excellence Medal of the European Mineralogical Union, and three most-cited paper awards from Elsevier. He created laboratories in China and in Russia.

Dmitry Svergun© RUSNANO

Dmitry Svergun

Graduate of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Gained worldwide recognition for new practical applications of X-ray radiation. Professor, Habil. PhD. He is the head of the European Molecular Biology Research Laboratory in Hamburg.

Vladimir Krasnopolsky© MIPT

Vladimir Krasnopolsky

Made several discoveries concerning our Solar System. He was one of the creators of spectrometers for the first Soviet interplanetary probes. He discovered the ozone layer, helium and methane in the atmosphere of Mars.

Alexander Holevo© Mathematisches
Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach

Alexander Holevo

Author of 170 papers, including books published abroad. He made a substantial contribution to the mathematical foundations of quantum information science. He is the holder of three international awards: Quantum Communication Award (1996), Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (1999) and Claude E. Shannon Award (2016). Graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Eugene Kaspersky© Kaspersky Lab

Eugene Kaspersky

A world-renowned expert in cyber security. He is the creator of anti-virus software that is designed to protect users against computer viruses, trojans, spyware, and unknown threats. Eugene Kaspersky is listed by Foreign Policy as one of the Top-100 Global Thinkers of 2012. He holds an Honorary Doctorate of Technology degree from Plymouth University.