Leonid Ivanovich Sedov (; 14 November 1907,

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

– 5 September 1999,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a Russian physicist who worked as an engineer in the former

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

. In 1930 Sedov graduated from the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

, where he had been a student of

Sergey Chaplygin Sergey Alexeyevich Chaplygin (; 5 April 1869 – 8 October 1942) was a Russian and Soviet physicist, mathematician, and mechanical engineer. He is known for mathematical formulas such as Chaplygin's equation and for a hypothetical substa ...

, with the degree of Doctor of Physics and Mathematical Sciences. He later became a professor at the university. During World War II, he devised the so-called ''Sedov Similarity Solution'' for a

blast wave In fluid dynamics, a blast wave is the increased pressure and flow resulting from the deposition of a large amount of energy in a small, very localised volume. The flow field can be approximated as a lead shock wave, followed by a similar subsonic ...

, now called

Taylor–von Neumann–Sedov blast wave Taylor–von Neumann–Sedov blast wave (or sometimes referred to as Sedov–von Neumann–Taylor blast wave) refers to a blast wave induced by a strong explosion. The blast wave was described by a self-similar solution independently by G. I. Taylo ...

after three scientists who did that independently. In 1947 he was awarded the . He was the first chairman of the USSR Space Exploration program and broke first news of its existence in 1955. He was president of the

International Astronautical Federation The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) is an international space advocacy organization based in Paris, and founded in 1951 as a non-governmental organization to establish a dialogue between scientists around the world and to lay t ...

(IAF) from 1959 to 1961. Until recently, it had been thought that Sedov was the principal engineer behind the Soviet

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...

project.

Awards and honors

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () 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 achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

(1943) * Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1945, 1961) * Stalin Prize, 2nd class (1952) * Six

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1954, 1963, 1967, 1975, 1980, 1987) *

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1967) * Allan D. Emil Memorial Award (1981) *

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on 2 March 1994 by Presidential Decree 442. Until the re-establishment of the Order of St. Andrew in 1998, it was the highest order of ...

, 4th class (1998)

References

Bibliography

Reference to 1955 announcementObituary notice
in ''Minutes of General Assembly Meetings, 2000'' section *Sedov, L. I., 1959, ''Similarity and Dimensional Methods in Mechanics'', 4th edn. Academic. * L.I. Sedov, A course in continuum mechanics. Volumes. I-IV. Wolters-Noordhoff Publishing, Netherlands, 1971. *Sedov, L. I., "Propagation of strong shock waves," ''Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics'', Vol. 10, pages 241–250 (1946). (See also: Barber–Layden–Power effect) *Reference to confusion with Ukrainian physicist

Sergei Korolyov Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Rocket, Sputnik 1, and w ...

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1907 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Russian mathematicians 20th-century Russian physicists Scientists from Rostov-on-Don Academic staff of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Academic staff of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motors employees Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute employees Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Commanders of the Legion of Honour Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Aerodynamicists Russian mathematicians Russian physicists Russian space program personnel Soviet inventors {{Russia-physicist-stub Soviet mathematicians Soviet physicists Soviet space program personnel Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery