Klassen, Willy I.

Willy Ivanovich Klassen was born in 1913 in the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), Yekaterinoslav Province, in the family of a mining engineer. After graduating from the Moscow Mining Institute (now the Mining Institute of NITU "MISiS" ) in 1935, V.I. Klassen worked in the Donbass as an assistant chief, and then as a head of a coal preparation factory. Having a huge desire for research, V.I. Klassen began working at the All-Union Institute of Mineral Raw Materials (VIMS) in the laboratory of M.A. Eygeles. Soon V.I. Klassen defended his thesis.

In 1941, as a German (after his father), he was exiled to Central Asia, where until 1945 he worked as head of a coal preparation plant and an arsenic plant at the Bric-Mullinsky Mining and Metallurgical Combine, then until 1947 at the Sredaztsvetmetrazvedka Institute.

Upon returning to Moscow, he worked at the Institute of Mining and Chemical Raw Materials, from 1953 - at the Institute of Mining of the USSR Academy of Sciences , then at the Institute of Fossil Fuels as Head of the Laboratory of Gravitational Mineral Processing Methods. Since 1953 V.I. Klassen is a professor at MGI, at the same time in charge of a laboratory at the Institute of Civil Engineering of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1972 to 1986 - Deputy Director of the Institute of Mining and Chemical Raw Materials.

IN AND. Klassen was a bright personality and a very charming man. He played tennis perfectly (he had the first rank in this sport), he drew well, his range of interests was extremely wide.

In 1986, at the age of seventy-three, V.I. Klassen passed away.

IN AND. Klassen is a wide-ranging scientist; he carried out research in the field of the beneficiation of coal, nonferrous and ferrous metals, chemical raw materials and other minerals. His main scientific achievements in the field of flotation of ores of mining and chemical raw materials and coal, the theory of action and the creation of flotation reagents, the design of new flotation machines with variable pressure, the use of magnetic water treatment and solutions in the enrichment of minerals and other sectors of the national economy.

His monographs “Introduction to the theory of flotation” (co-authored with V. Mokrousov), “Elements of the theory of flotation of hard coal” and “Flotation” (co-authored with I. Plaksin and V. Glembotsky) are the first successful attempts creating a general theory of flotation and received wide recognition both in our country and abroad. They are translated into English, German and Japanese.

IN AND. Klassen was the first in our country to begin a systematic and comprehensive study of issues related to various applications of magnetic water treatment. The theory of magnetic water treatment created by him was and is extremely popular, but debatable from a scientific point of view.

The author of more than 400 scientific papers, including 17 monographs and textbooks, had about 60 copyright certificates for inventions.

IN AND. Klassen was awarded two Orders of the Badge of Honor , the Miner's Glory Badge of Honor of the 1st and 2nd Degrees and medals.

Pikkat-Ordynsky G.A. Professor Willy I. Klassen. Mining information and analytical bulletin (scientific and technical journal), 2002

Timchenko A. I. Klassen, Willy Ivanovich (on the 100th anniversary of his birth). Mountain Journal. 2013 number 4.

IN AND. Klassen in the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia.

Professor V.I. Klassen: “The magnitude of the magnet is immeasurable ...” Magazine “Youth” No. 7 July 1976

IN AND. Klassen in the book "Scientific schools of the Moscow State Mining University."