Leonid Veniaminovich Keldysh (; 7 April 1931 – 11 November 2016) was a Soviet and Russian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

. Keldysh was a professor in the I.E. Tamm

Theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may ...

division of the

Lebedev Physical Institute The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS or just LPI) (in russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated ...

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 ...

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 ...

and a faculty member at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. He was known for developing the Keldysh formalism, a powerful

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles a ...

framework designed to describe a system in a non-equilibrium state, as well as for the theory of excitonic insulators (Keldysh-Kopaev model, with Yuri Kopaev). Keldysh's awards include the 2009 Rusnanoprize, an international nanotechnology award, for his work related to

molecular-beam epitaxy Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxy method for thin-film deposition of single crystals. MBE is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including transistors, and it is considered one of the fundamental tools for the devel ...

, the 2011 Evgenii Feinberg Memorial Medal, and the 2015 Lomonosov Grand Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Keldysh was a son of mathematician Lyudmila Keldysh. His uncle,

Mstislav Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (russian: Мстисла́в Все́володович Ке́лдыш; – 24 June 1978) was a Soviet mathematician who worked as an engineer in the Soviet space program. He was the academician of the Academy o ...

, was a mathematician and the president of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. Sergei Novikov, a mathematician and a Fields medalist, is his step-brother.

External links

Russian Academy of Sciences staff directory

Keldysh's published papers
in the scientific journal '' Physics-Uspekhi''

References

1931 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Russian physicists 21st-century Russian physicists Scientists from Moscow Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academic staff of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Lenin Prize winners Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Experimental physicists Russian nanotechnologists Russian physicists Soviet physicists {{Russia-scientist-stub Burials at Donskoye Cemetery