Kirill Shchelkin
Researching combustion physics and leading scientific programmes
Kirill Shchelkin was a Soviet physicist born in Tiflis in 1911. After studying in Crimea, he continued his research at the Institute of Chemical Physics in Leningrad. His main interests were combustion, gas motion and rapidly developing physical and chemical processes.
He investigated the influence of turbulence on flame propagation and contributed to the theory of combustion and detonation. From 1947, he participated in the Soviet atomic programme. Between 1955 and 1960, he was the first scientific director and chief designer of the research centre at Chelyabinsk-70, now Snezhinsk.
In later years, he returned to research and writing, including books that introduced physics to a wider readership. Shchelkin died in Moscow in 1968. His career forms part of the history of twentieth-century chemical physics and large state-organized scientific programmes.