Kovalchuk pointed to Velikhov's launching of state-scale projects

Academician, an outstanding scientist in the field of thermonuclear fusion Evgeny Velikhov initiated projects of national scale. The president of the national research center "Kurchatov Institute" Mikhail Kovalchuk told about it on December 9 Mikhail Kovalchuk.

He called Velikhov an outstanding personality, with whose death an era passed away.

"The amazing thing is a man who was interested in everything until his last breath. He was interested in absolutely everything, to the extent that he was oriented to the new. <...> Any thing he touched turned into a large-scale state endeavor," Kovalchuk added during the farewell ceremony for the scientist.

Labors and days: Academician Evgeny Velikhov passed away

The eminent scientist came to science through books and the example of his father

The farewell ceremony for the scientist began earlier in the day at the Alexandrov House of Scientists of the Kurchatov Institute Research Center in the capital. Velikhov will be buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. Then the assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko noted that in a difficult period for Russia thanks to Velikhov's generation science was preserved. He added that at the moment science has risen, noting the merit of the academician.

Velikhov's death became known on December 5. The outstanding expert in the field of thermonuclear fusion died at the 90th year of life. Commenting on this, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vice President of SIC "Kurchatov Institute" Academician Vladislav Panchenko noted that Velikhov was a great man who could think broadly and was passionate about his work.

Kovalchuk said on December 6 that the academician's scientific activity had a civilizational scale. Recalling Velikhov's ideas and projects, the president of the Kurchatov Institute pointed to the scientist's ability to "look into the future" and the ability to make "nontrivial moves." In addition, he also noted Velikhov's contribution to the emergence of the Internet in Russia.

Velikhov was the scientific director of controlled thermonuclear fusion research in the USSR. In 1977-1996, Velikhov was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, then of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In addition, Velikhov is a participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation and the holder of many other state awards.