Alexei Fridman
| Alexey Maksimovich Fridman (Алексей Максимович Фридман) | |
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| Born |
17 February 1940 Moscow, USSR |
| Died | 29 October 2010 (aged 70) Jerusalem, Israel |
| Citizenship | USSR, Russia, Israel |
| Fields | astrophysics, physics |
| Institutions | Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, MSU, Institute of Astronomy RAS [1] |
| Alma mater | Novosibirsk State University |
| Doctoral advisor | Roald Sagdeev |
| Known for | astrophysics, physics of gravitating systems, plasma physics |
| Influences | David A. Frank-Kamenetskii, Yakov Zeldovich, Mikhail A. Leontovich, Gersh Budker, Anatolii B. Mikhailovskii. |
| Notable awards | USSR State Prize (1989), State Prize of the Russian Federation (2003, 2008), order Manas III extent |
Alexey Maksimovich Fridman was a Soviet physicist specializing in astrophysics, physics of gravitating systems and plasma physics. He discovered new types of instabilities in gravitating media, created the theory of planetary rings and predicted the existence of small Uranus satellites that were later discovered. He also developed hydrodynamic theory of the spiral structure in galaxies. Fridman worked at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, INASAN [2], and was professor of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Moscow State University.
Alexey Fridman was born in Moscow on February 17, 1940 in a Jewish family, to Maksim Efimovich Fridman (surgeon, MD/Ph.D./Sci.D.; 1903–1990) and Felitsia Yakovlevna Sheinbaum (economist, 1907–1999). Polyachenko family lived in the same building, and Alik Fridman and Valerij Polyachenko's lifelong friendship (and later - scientific collaboration) started before they were five years old. Following a brief arrest and release of Maksim Fridman perhaps on a prelude to "Doctors' plot" in 1951, the family moved to Frunze (now Bishkek), Kyrgyzstan. Alik spent summers in Moscow staying with the family of his father's sister, Elena Fridman, and her husband, David A. Frank-Kamenetskii. Following the death of Joseph Stalin and the general amnesty [3], cities with warm climate filled with criminals and the crime rates skyrocketed. Police was failing, and while in high school Alik and many other young men joined "the neighborhood watch" brigades organized by Komsomol and police. He did not miss a single training session in military sambo, and acquired many knife scars from the street action. He was the only one who remained alive from his team of four by the graduation. After high school graduation (1957), Alik attempted to enter Moscow Physics and Technology Institute, but was failed on the oral math exam as often happened to Jewish applicants. He spent this year at Kyrgyzstan University in Frunze, then entered the Kazan University (1958) where he did undergraduate research with Prof. A. Petrov [4]. In 1958, at the age of 18, Alik passed the first exam, mathematics, in the series of Theoretical minimum, with Lev Landau. In 1960, on advice from David A. Frank-Kamenetskii, Alik transferred to Novosibirsk University, from which he graduated in 1963 with M. S. in Physics. Academic career of the young scientist went well until in 1968 he signed the letter of 46 (see below). However, with support of many prominent scientists, most of the scientists "signers" careers (not fully) recovered, and even though, following defense, Alik's Doctor of Science dissertation spent over two years "waiting" to be considered for the approval of the Highest Attestation committee, the degree was finally awarded to him in 1972. In 1971 Alik was offered to create a laboratory of plasma physics in SibIZMIR (now Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics [5]), Irkutsk, and he moved there with Valerij Polyachenko [6], Ilia Shukhman, and Alexander Morozov [7].
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