Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov (russian: Владимир Александрович Котельников; 6 September 1908 in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

– 11 February 2005 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) was an

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...

and

radar astronomy Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting radio waves or microwaves off target objects and analyzing their reflections. Radar astronomy differs from ''radio astronomy'' in that the latter is a passive o ...

pioneer from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. He was elected a member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, in the Department of Technical Science (radio technology) in 1953. From 30 July 1973 to 25 March 1980 Kotelnikov served as Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Council.

Career timeline

*1926–31 study of

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

telecommunications at the

Bauman Moscow State Technical University The Bauman Moscow State Technical University, BMSTU (russian: link=no, Московский государственный технический университет им. Н. Э. Баумана (МГТУ им. Н. Э. Баумана)), some ...

and

Moscow Power Engineering Institute National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute" (MPEI) is a public university based in Moscow, Russia. It offers training in the fields of Power Engineering, Electric Engineering, Radio Engineering, Electronics, Information Tec ...

, dissertation in engineering science. *1931–41 worked at the MEI as an engineer, scientific assistant, laboratory director and lecturer. *1941–44 worked as a developer in the telecommunication industry. *1944–80 full professor at the MEI. *1953–87 deputy director and since 1954 director of the Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics of the

( IRE RAS). *1970–88 vice-president of the RAS; since 1988 adviser of the presidium.

Achievements

He is known mostly for having discovered, before e.g.

Edmund Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th-century who contributed widely to applied mathema ...

Harry Nyquist Harry Nyquist (, ; February 7, 1889 – April 4, 1976) was a Swedish-American physicist and electronic engineer who made important contributions to communication theory. Personal life Nyquist was born in the village Nilsby of the parish Stora K ...

, or

Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American people, American mathematician, electrical engineering, electrical engineer, and cryptography, cryptographer known as a "father of information theory". As a 21-year-o ...

, the

sampling theorem Sampling may refer to: *Sampling (signal processing), converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal * Sampling (graphics), converting continuous colors into discrete color components *Sampling (music), the reuse of a sound recording in ano ...

in 1933. This result of

Fourier Analysis In mathematics, Fourier analysis () is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Josep ...

was known in

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the representation of Function (mathematics), functions or signals as the Superposition principle, superposition of basic waves, and the study of and generalization of the notions of Fo ...

since the end of the 19th century and circulated in the 1920s and 1930s in the engineering community. He was the first to write down a precise statement of this theorem about signal transmission. He also was a pioneer in the use of

signal theory Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniq ...

in modulation and communications. He is also a creator of the theory of optimum noise immunity. He obtained several scientific prizes for his work in

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming f ...

and

. In 1961, he oversaw one of the first efforts to probe the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

with radar. In June 1962 he led the first probe of the planet Mercury with radar. Kotelnikov was also involved in

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

, proving the absolute security of the

one-time pad In cryptography, the one-time pad (OTP) is an encryption technique that cannot be cracked, but requires the use of a single-use pre-shared key that is not smaller than the message being sent. In this technique, a plaintext is paired with a ran ...

; his results were delivered in 1941, the time of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, in a report that apparently remains classified. In this, as with the above-mentioned sampling theorem, he and

in the US reached the same conclusions independently of each other. For his achievements, Kotelnikov was awarded the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

2000 Gold Medal of Alexander Graham Bell and the honorable IEEE Third Millennium Medal. Prof.

Bruce Eisenstein Bruce Eisenstein is an engineering educator serving as the Arthur J. Rowland Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was formerly Interim Dean and Vice Dean of the College of Engineering at Drexel University. He has published nearly ...

, the President of the IEEE, described Kotelnikov as follows: "The outstanding hero of the present. His merits are recognized all over the world. In front of us is the giant of radio engineering thought, who has made the most significant contribution to media communication development".

Honours and awards

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (russian: Орден «За заслуги перед Отечеством», ''Orden "Za zaslugi pered Otechestvom"'') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on 2 March 1994 by P ...

: **1st class (21 September 2003) – for outstanding achievement in the development of science and many years of fruitful activity **2nd class (6 July 1998) – for outstanding service to the state, his great personal contribution to the development of national science and training of highly qualified personnel *Twice

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

(1969, 1978) *Six

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

, twice *

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...

* Lenin Prize (1964) *Two Stalin Prizes (1943, 1946) *Badge "For Services to Moscow" (26 August 2003) *Prize of the Council of Ministers *

Lomonosov Gold Medal The Lomonosov Gold Medal (russian: Большая золотая медаль имени М. В. Ломоносова ''Bol'shaya zolotaya medal' imeni M. V. Lomonosova''), named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarde ...

(1981) *Popov Gold Medal (1974) *Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1987) *IEEE Award in honor of Hernand and Sosthenes Behn (1973) *Main prize of the

Eduard Rhein Foundation The Eduard Rhein Foundation was founded in 1976 in Hamburg (Germany) by Eduard Rhein. The goal of the foundation is to promote scientific research, learning, arts, and culture. This is done in particular by granting awards for outstanding achievemen ...

(1999) *

IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal is an award honoring ''"exceptional contributions to communications and networking sciences and engineering"'' in the field of telecommunications. The medal is one of the highest honors awarded by the Instit ...

(of the USA) (2000) *The Koronian asteroid 2726 Kotelnikov was named in his honor in 1984. *Kotel'nikov's name has also been given to a naval vessel and the

Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics (russian: Институт радиотехники и электроники (ИРЭ)) by the Russian Academy of Science is an institute in Moscow, that conducts fundamental research in fields of rad ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotelnikov, Vladimir A. 1908 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Russian engineers Scientists from Kazan Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1971–1975 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1975–1980 Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Foreign Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Academic staff of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow Power Engineering Institute alumni Academic staff of Moscow Power Engineering Institute Heroes of Socialist Labour Stalin Prize winners Lenin Prize winners Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 1st class Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour People associated with radar Russian electrical engineers Russian inventors Soviet electrical engineers Soviet inventors Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery