Kovalchuk, Boris Mikhailovich

Boris Mikhailovich Kovalchuk was born in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region . After graduating from the Power Engineering Department of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute in 1962, he worked as an engineer and head of the laboratory of the Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics TPI. Then he entered graduate school , defended his thesis and since 1970 headed the laboratory of nanosecond technology at the Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences . In 1977, the laboratory became part of the Institute of High Current Electronics of the SB RAS , in 1981 it was reorganized into the ISE Pulse Technology Department, which B. M. Kovalchuk headed until his death. In 1987, B. M. Kovalchuk was elected a corresponding member, in 1992 - a full member of the RAS. ^[one]

In the 1970s, with the participation of B. M. Kovalchuk, the foundations of a new, strategically important for the country scientific direction — the physics and technology of generating powerful electric pulses — were laid. With his participation, the first domestic high-current electron accelerator , the first domestic heavy-duty gas lasers , the first pulsed generator with inductive energy storage and a plasma current chopper were created. Among his projects is the GIT-12 pulse generator, which is included in the list of unique research facilities in Russia . Largely thanks to the efforts of Kovalchuk, Russia is today the world leader in the field of pulsed energy.

Over the past five years, Academician Kovalchuk and his staff have been improving the elemental base of powerful pulse technology. Many pendant gas-discharge pulse switches with a high resource have been created, providing the inclusion of capacitor banks with a mega- joule energy reserve . Based on them, power supply modules for high-power pulsed solid-state lasers designed for use in a laser fusion system have been created.

B. M. Kovalchuk developed the concept of constructing heavy-duty pulse generators based on a linear transformer , which made it possible to radically increase the specific energy reserve of generators and simplify their creation. This concept is considered as the basis for the construction of a new generation of multi- watt generator, which makes it possible to implement inertial thermonuclear fusion based on the Z-pinch .

B. M. Kovalchuk is the author and co-author of more than 250 scientific works and inventions. Among his students are 4 doctors and 5 candidates of sciences.

B. M. Kovalchuk was a member of the Department of Energy, Engineering, Mechanics and Control Processes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Joint Scientific Council for Physical and Technical Sciences of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the scientific and doctoral dissertation councils at the Institute of High Current Electronics of the SB RAS, and the chairman of the ISE expert seminar in the specialty "Electrophysics, electrophysical installations."

B. M. Kovalchuk was co-chair of the II International Congress on Radiation Physics, High-Current Electronics and Modification of Materials by Charged Particle Beams and Plasma Flows ( 2006 ), Chairman of the Organizing Committees of the XII-XIV International Symposia on High-Current Electronics ( 2000 , 2004 , 2006 ).

• Lenin Komsomol Prize ( 1968 )
• USSR State Prize ( 1981 )
• State Prize of the Russian Federation ( 1998 ) ^[2]
• Erwin Marx International Prize ( 1997 ) for great achievements in research on the generation of high-power high-voltage pulses
• Demidov Prize ( 2007 )
• Order of Friendship of Peoples ( 1986 )
• Order of Honor ( 1997 ) ^[3]
• Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, IV degree ( 2007 ) ^[4]