Lev Nikolayevich Nakhgaltsev (April 10, 1927, Gorky — 2006) was one of the founders of the Research Institute of Measuring Systems named after Yu. E. Sedakov (NIIIS) in Gorky, serving as first deputy director and chief engineer of the institute from its establishment in 1966.[1]

Biography and Education

Nakhgaltsev was born in Gorky; his father died young, and the family lived in difficult financial circumstances. He died on June 5, 2006, and was buried at the cemetery of the village of Blizhneye Konstantinovo, within Prioksky District of Nizhny Novgorod.[2] He was unable to complete his studies at the Gorky Diesel Engineering Technical College: after seven grades he enrolled as a lathe operator's apprentice at Sokol Aircraft Manufacturing Plant. In August 1944 he was conscripted into the army; in May 1945 he graduated from the 2nd Moscow Aviation School of Special Services. After demobilization in 1946, he was assigned to the Ministry of Medium Machine Building and arrived to work in Sarov (then a closed facility), where he began working as a lathe operator. From 1946 onward he worked at KB-11 under Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences — the organization now known as the Russian Federal Nuclear Center – All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region.[2][1]

Without interrupting his work, in 1953 he graduated with distinction from the Moscow Polytechnic College with a specialization in experimental physics technician, and in 1959 he graduated from MEPhI with a specialization in precision mechanical instruments.[1]

Career in the Nuclear Industry

In Sarov, Nakhgaltsev rose from a worker to deputy chief engineer and head of the pilot production facility of Plant No. 1. In 1966, Director B. G. Muzrukov offered him the position of chief engineer and first deputy director of the newly established Gorky branch of KB-11. Yuliy Yevgenyevich Sedakov was appointed director of the branch, and N. Z. Tremasov was appointed chief designer. The new organization was named the Gorky Design and Technology Bureau of Measuring Instruments (GKTBIP) and was subsequently reorganized into the Research Institute of Measuring Systems. From 1977 to 1991, Nakhgaltsev served as director of the Riga Research Institute of Radioisotope Instrumentation, after which he returned to NIIIS named after Yu. E. Sedakov, where he worked as a leading research scientist until 2006.[2][1]

It was thus Nakhgaltsev, Sedakov, and Tremasov who stood at the origins of the enterprise that today bears the name of Yu. E. Sedakov and is part of the Rosatom state corporation.[1]

Nakhgaltsev was the author of more than 50 scholarly works and a number of inventions in the field of instrument-making registered under USSR inventor's certificates. For his professional contributions he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1971), the Order of the October Revolution (1976), and the Order of the Friendship of Peoples (1986).[2]

Sources

  1. niiis.nnov.ru — Nakhgaltsev Lev Nikolayevich (1927–2006) — NIIIS — Research Institute of Measuring Systems named after Yu. E. Sedakov
  2. names52.ru — Nakhgaltsev Lev Nikolayevich (archive)