219 LEONTOVICH 



Investigation of the Kursk Magnetic Anomoly. Beginning in 

 1929, he was a scientific worker at the Physics Institute of 

 Moscow University. He was a professor from 1934 to 1935 and 

 again in 1955 at Moscow University. From 1934 to 1941 and 

 1946 to 1952, he worked at the Physics Institute of the U.S.S.R. 

 Academy of Sciences. Leontovich began working at the Institute 

 of Atomic Energy, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in 1951. In 

 1939 he was elected Corresponding Member of the U.S.S.R. 

 Academy of Sciences and in 1946 Academician. He received 

 the Gold Medal of A. S. Popov in 1952, and in 1958 a Lenin 

 Prize. 



Leontovich' s investigations are in electrodynamics, optics, 

 statistical physics, radiophysics. Important investigations by 

 Leontovich are on the theory of molecular dispersion of light 

 (until 1935), in ultra-acoustics [absorption of sound in gases 

 (1936), in liquids (1936 and 1939)J, on the theory of fluctuations 

 and statistical physics [on the basis of thermodynamic statistics 

 (1932), on gas-kinetic equations derived from the theory on sto- 

 chastic processes (1935)], and in various aspects of radiophysics 

 [thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in solids (to- 

 gether with S. M. Rytov)]. Leontovich also studied the theory of 

 radiowave propagation and the theory of antennae. He determined 

 the approximate ratios between the components of the electro- 

 magnetic field on the surface of a conducting medium, thus con- ' 

 siderably simplifying mathematical treatment of the problem of 

 radiowave propagation along the earth's surface and allowing 

 solution of many special problems. A theory of fine wire an- 

 tennae was completed by Leontovich jointly with his student, 

 M. L. Levin, and published as *0n the Theory of Excitation of 

 Oscillations in Antennae Vibrators" (1944). Leontovich partici- 

 pated in solving practical problems in radioengineering. For 

 his work in radiophysics and radioengineering Leontovich was 

 awarded the Gold Medal of A. S. Popov (1952). Recently he has 

 been investigating powerful pulse discharges in gas in an effort 

 to obtain high -temperature plasma (Lenin Prize 1958). 

 Bibliography: 



Statistical Physics. Moscow-Leningrad: 1944. 

 Introduction to Thermodynamics, 2nd ed. Moscow- 

 Leningrad: 1952. 

 Biography: 



Mikhail Aleksandrovich Leontovich. On the 50th Anniversary 

 since the date of birth. Zhur. Eksptl. i Teoret. Fiz., 1953, 

 24, #1(7). 



