National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) () is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

technical university An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

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 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was founded in 1942 as the Moscow Mechanical Institute of Munitions, but was soon renamed the Moscow Mechanical Institute. Its original mission was to train skilled personnel for the Soviet military and

Soviet atomic bomb project The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II. Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers were secretly developing a " superwea ...

. It was renamed the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1953, which was its name until 2009. By the

Order of the Government of Russia Orders of the Government of Russia () is secondary legislation, a normative administrative directive content published by the Government of the Russian Federation within the limits of its competence, on the basis and in pursuance of the Constituti ...

on April 8, 2009 (#480-r) on behalf of Russian President's Decree of October 7, 2008 (#1448) "On the pilot project launching on creating National Research Universities" MEPhI was granted this new status. The university was reorganized. The aim of the university existence is now preparing the specialists by giving them higher professional, post-graduation professional, secondary professional and additional professional education, as well as educational and scientific activities. In 2022, QS World University rankings rated the university #308 in the world, World University Rankings by ''

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'' ranked the university #401 in the world, and in 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' rated the university #483 in the world. Mephi Reactor Criticality

Academics

Today, MEPhI has nine main departments (faculties or institutes): * Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering * Institute for Laser and Plasma Technologies * Institute of Engineering Physics for Biomedicine * Institute of Nanoengineering in Electronics, Spintronics and Photonics * Institute of Cyber Intelligence Systems * Institute of Financial and Economic Security * Institute of International Relations * Faculty of Physics and Technology * Faculty of Business Informatics and Complex Systems Management The university offers bachelor, masters (and similar degree 'Specialist'), and post-graduate degrees in physics, mathematics, computer science and other areas. MEPhI facilities include a 2.5 MW (thermal) pool-type

research reactor Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritim ...

and Neutrino Water Detector NEVOD. The university has about 35,000 students at branches in Moscow and other towns. In Moscow are around 7,500 students (including over 1300 foreigners). It normally takes 4 – 5.5 (some sub-departments take six) years for a student to graduate from MEPhI. The curriculum of the first two years consists exclusively of required courses (core), with emphasis on mathematics, physics, experimental work and English. After the two first years of studying students on a competition basis enroll in the sub-departments which specialize in different branches of physics, computer science, information security, mathematics, etc. Mephi Reactor Control Room

Rankings

In 2022, QS World University rankings rated the university #308 in the world, World University Rankings by ''

'' ranked the university #401 in the world, and in 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' rated the university #483 in the world.https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/russia

Student population

The student population is predominantly male. During the first years from MEPhI's foundation there was a ban against accepting women. In recent years this situation has changed.

Location

It is a 15-minute walk (or a five-minute bus ride) from the university to the

Kashirskaya Kashirskaya () is a Cross-platform interchange, cross-platform station complex on the Moscow Metro. It was opened on 11 August 1969 as part of the Kakhovsky radius extension, and from 1984 was an interchange between the Kakhovskaya and the Orekho ...

station on the

Zamoskvoretskaya Line The Zamoskvoretskaya line (, ), formerly Gorkovsko–Zamoskvoretskaya () (Line 2; Green Line), is a line of the Moscow Metro in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. Opened in 1938, chronologically it became the third line in the metro system despite bei ...

of the

Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...

Online resources

During 2016–18 MEPhI increased its presence in online educational platforms, namely Coursera,

edX edX is an American For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit massive open online course provider. It was founded by MIT and Harvard. It is a subsidiary of 2U (company), 2U. History edX was founded in May 2012 by the admi ...

, Universarium and CLP4NET. By the end of 2018, MEPhI had provided 43 courses via those platforms, including 25 on

Coursera Coursera Inc. () is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offe ...

and 11 on

. In 2018, the number of students that joined MEPhI's online courses on the online platforms reached approximately 160,000 persons from 150 countries.

Notable people

* Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov () – Nobel Prize *

Pavel Cherenkov Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov ( ; July 28, 1904 – January 6, 1990) was a Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm "for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect". Biography C ...

() – Nobel Prize *

Ilya Mikhailovich Frank Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (; 23 October 1908 – 22 June 1990) was a Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Igor Y. Tamm, also of the Soviet Union. He received the award for h ...

() – Nobel Prize *

Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet physicist and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Although he spent his career in physics in the ...

() – Nobel Prize *

Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov , sometimes Semenov, Semionov or Semenoff (; – 25 September 1986) was a Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformat ...

() – Nobel Prize *

Igor Tamm Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm (; 8 July 1895 – 12 April 1971) was a Soviet Union, Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, for their 1934 discovery and demon ...

() – Nobel Prize *

Mukhtar Ablyazov Mukhtar Qabyluly Ablyazov (, ''Mūhtar Qabylūly Äbliazov''; born 16 May 1963) is a Kazakh businessman and political activist who served as chairman of Bank Turan Alem (BTA Bank), and is a co-founder and a leader of the unregistered political ...

() – leader "Democratic choice of Kazakhstan", former minister of Energy, Industry and Trade in Kazakhstan (21 April 1998 – October 1999) *

Lev Artsimovich Lev Andreyevich Artsimovich ( Russian: Лев Андреевич Арцимович, February 25, 1909 – March 1, 1973), also transliterated Arzimowitsch, was a Soviet physicist known for his contributions to the Tokamak— a device that produ ...

– known as "the father of the

Tokamak A tokamak (; ) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field generated by external magnets to confine plasma (physics), plasma in the shape of an axially symmetrical torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement fusi ...

" *

Sergei Avdeyev Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev (Сергей Васильевич Авдеев; born 1 January 1956) is a former Russian engineer and cosmonaut. Avdeyev was born in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast (formerly Kuybyshev Oblast), Russian SFSR. He graduat ...

() – engineer and cosmonaut, record for time spent in space: 747.59 days *

Alexander Mikhajlovich Baldin Aleksandr Mikhailovich Baldin (Russian: Александр Михайлович Балдин) (February 26, 1926, Moscow – April 29, 2001) was a Soviet and Russian physicist, expert in the field of physics of elementary particles and high energy p ...

() *

Anatoly Ivanovich Larkin Anatoly Ivanovich Larkin (; October 14, 1932 – August 4, 2005) was a Russian theoretical physicist, universally recognised as a leader in theory of condensed matter, and who was also a celebrated teacher of several generations of theorists. Bo ...

() *

Alexander Balankin Alexander Balankin (born March 3, 1958) is a Russian-Mexican scientist (:ru:Баланкин, Александр Сергеевич, Баланкин, Александр Сергеевич) whose work in the field of fractal mechanics and its engi ...

() * Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov – physicist *

Igor Kurchatov Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (; 12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and has been referred to as "father of the Russian ...

() *

Lev Gor'kov Lev Petrovich Gor'kov (; 14 June 1929 – 28 December 2016) was a Russian-American research physicist internationally known for his pioneering work in the field of superconductivity. He was particularly famous for developing microscopic foundations ...

() *

Evgenii Feinberg Evgenii L'vovich Feinberg (27 June 1912 – 10 December 2005) was a Soviet physicist, recognized for his contributions to theoretical physics. He was the son of a physician, born in Baku, moving to Moscow in 1918 where he graduated from Moscow Sta ...

() *

Yuri Oganessian Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian (born 14 April 1933) is an Armenian and Russian nuclear physicist who is best known as a researcher of superheavy elements. He has led the discovery of multiple chemical elements. He succeeded Georgy Flyorov as dir ...

() – element 118 in Periodic Table named

oganesson Oganesson is a synthetic element, synthetic chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Og and atomic number 118. It was first synthesized in 2002 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, near Moscow, Russia, by a joint ...

in his honor *

Lev Okun Lev Borisovich Okun (; 7 July 1929 – 23 November 2015) was a Soviet theoretical physicist. He is known for his contributions to particle physics and quantum chromodynamics. He coined the term hadron. Life Early life and education He was bor ...

() * Igor Irodov – author of a series of handbooks on general physics. *

Dmitry Kholodov Dmitry Yuryevich Kholodov (; 21 June 1967 – 17 October 1994) was a Russian journalist who investigated corruption in the military and was assassinated on 17 October 1994 in Moscow. Early life and education Kholodov was born in Zagorsk (now Se ...

() – Journalist who investigated corruption in the military and was assassinated on 17 October 1994 *

Isaak Pomeranchuk Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk (; 20 May 1913 – 14 December 1966) was a Soviet physicist of Polish origin in the former Soviet nuclear weapons program. His career in physics spent mostly studying the particle physics (including thermonuclear ...

() *

Vyacheslav Starshinov Vyacheslav Ivanovich Starshinov (; born May 6, 1940, in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian former ice hockey player, coach and executive. Starshinov played in the Soviet Hockey League for HC Spartak Moscow, scoring 405 goals in 540 league games ...

() – Olympic champion, world champion *

Elena Vesna Elena Borisovna Vesna (; born 12 November 1962) is a Russian psychologist. Since 2011 she works as a Vice-rector on Educational Affairs in National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. Early life and career Graduated from Vitus Bering Kamchatka ...

– () psychologist and Vice-Rector of Educational Affairs. *

Leonid Toptunov Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov (, ; 16 August 1960 – 14 May 1986) was a Soviet nuclear engineer who was the senior reactor control chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April ...

- senior reactor control chief engineer at

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

References

External links

English language
an
Russian language
official website of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)
Profile on the official website StudyInRussia {{authority control Universities and institutes established in the Soviet Union National research universities in Russia Universities and colleges established in 1942 1942 establishments in the Soviet Union Nuclear research institutes in Russia Research institutes in the Soviet Union Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union