Moscow physical engineering institute to mark 60th anniversary

On Saturday, November 23, the Moscow physical-engineering institute (MIFI) marks its 60th anniversary. It was founded in 1942 on the initiative of founder of atomic power engineering in the Soviet Union Igor Kurchatov as a Moscow mechanical institute. A year later the physical engineering institute was opened here.

During the years of its existence MIFI has moved beyond the framework of an educational establishment. It is closely connected with the academic scientific-research institutes and acquired a status of a research centre of experimental physics, nuclear physics, mathematics and cybernetics. Many world-known scientists, including laureates of the Nobel prize, Academicians Tamm, Cherenkov, Frank and Semyonov worked there.

At the present time, MIFI is a leading scientific centre of Russia with vast international ties. It has a research reactor, a computer centre, and an experimental plant. A total of 6,000 students study at the institute. The high physical college of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and two physical-mathematical lyceums work on its basis.

On Tuesday, November 19 Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulated the institute's administration, teachers and students saying that "a lot of outstanding scientists, designers and production managers graduated from this institute and made a weighty contribution to the development of the domestic nuclear science and industry".