ANNIVERSARIES AND DATES

D. S. MIKOV

In November 1973, it was 70 years since the birth of Professor Dmitrii Stepanovich Mikov, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences and head of the Department of Geophysical Methods of Prospecting and Exploration, MPI, at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute.

Dmitrii Stepanovich Mikov was born on November 5, 1903, into a peasant family in Perm Oblast. After studying in primary and secondary school, in 1923 he graduated from the Perm Land-Management Technical School, and then worked as a land-surveying technician in the Perm District Land Administration. In 1925 he entered the Ural Geological Prospecting Institute of the NKTP, and in 1930, among the first geophysics graduates in the USSR, he completed it in the geophysical specialty and was retained for teaching work at the same institute as an assistant in the Department of Geophysical Methods of Exploration. From 1931 to 1947 Dmitrii Stepanovich worked as a research associate at the Ural Scientific-Research Geophysical Institute, and later as chief engineer of the Ural Geophysical Expedition of the Ural Geological Administration. He spent seventeen field seasons in geophysical expeditions. His production and scientific work was closely connected with his pedagogical activity.

In 1936 he was confirmed in the rank of senior research associate. By that time D. S. Mikov had published 17 works on various questions of geophysical methods of investigation. Among them are works on the theory of interpretation of gravitational and magnetic anomalies, for example, the development of well-known charts and an atlas of theoretical curves, without reference to which no textbook on exploration geophysics can do. Without interrupting his production work, D. S. Mikov defended his Candidate’s dissertation in 1944.

The second period of Dmitrii Stepanovich’s activity is connected with the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, where he has worked from January 1, 1947, to the present as head of the Department of Geophysical Methods of Exploration. During this time he carried out extensive work on organizing the first department in Siberia of geophysical methods of exploration, on staffing it and equipping teaching laboratories with the necessary apparatus. Here his talent as a scholar and teacher is revealed most fully. He supervises the training of postgraduate students, lectures on exploration geophysics, gravity prospecting, and magnetic prospecting, carefully follows the development of science in his field, and participates in public—

...of public life of the faculty and the institute, raising his ideological and political level. In 1956 D. S. Mikov completed the evening university of Marxism-Leninism; he is a member of the institute’s academic council and of the geological-prospecting faculty, a member of the methodological commission, chairman of the course commission of the geological-prospecting faculty, was a member of the institute local committee and chairman of the faculty trade-union bureau, and repeatedly took part in the work of precinct and district electoral commissions.

Dmitrii Stepanovich has already devoted 50 years of his life to scientific and production work; 30 of them are connected with work in a higher educational institution and 5 with a research institute. During this time he has published 60 works, including two monographs and two brochures, with a total volume of 37 printed sheets, and 2 textbooks (coauthored). One of the monographs—Atlas of Theoretical Curves for the Interpretation of Magnetic and Gravitational Anomalies—after its appearance in 1956 was reissued by Geoltekhizdat in a second printing of 5,000 copies, and in 1960 was republished in Chinese. In 1961 the textbook Exploration Geophysics, edited and coauthored by D. S. Mikov, was published in a printing of 3,500 copies, and in 1962 the book Methods for Interpreting Magnetic Anomalies appeared in a printing of 2,500 copies. Both books quickly sold out and are now being reprinted.

D. S. Mikov is the responsible editor and coauthor of the collective book Practical Application of Geophysical Methods of Exploration, published in 1966 in a printing of 2,500 copies. A valuable contribution to the theory and practice of interpreting potential fields was made by the author’s cycle of published works on the interpretation of magnetic anomalies caused by geologic bodies of inclined magnetization, and by works on integral methods for interpreting gravimagnetic fields, the materials of which served for his doctoral dissertation. At present D. S. Mikov has prepared and submitted for publication a monograph of 6 printed sheets on integral methods of interpretation. In 1972 the publishing house Nedra accepted for publication another monograph by D. S. Mikov: Guide and Album of Anomalies for the Interpretation of Borehole Magnetic Prospecting Data (volume 8 printed sheets).

The works of D. S. Mikov have received wide recognition both in our country and abroad. Requests for his works have been received from foreign institutes and scholars: from the U.S. Department of State (twice), Prague University (Czechoslovakia, Brno), the Mining-Technical Institute (Ostrava), the joint-stock company Sjøvaranger (Oslo, Norway), Columbia University (Vancouver, Canada), from India (Dehra, Dr. Hari Narain), and from China.

At present Prof. D. S. Mikov is a major specialist in the field of magnetic and gravity prospecting. Monographs, textbooks, and dissertations are sent to him for expert review and appraisal. He has served 19 times as an official opponent for dissertations alone. Today one can speak of the Tomsk school of geophysicists. In the 26 years of existence of the department headed by Prof. D. S. Mikov, 715 geophysical engineers have been trained. Twenty-three people completed postgraduate studies under D. S. Mikov and defended dissertations. In 1947 the department had one docent and one laboratory assistant. In recent years more than 30 staff members have worked at the department, including one professor, 9 docents and candidates of sciences.

By the number of pupils and followers, and by their contribution to science and production, we judge the scientific maturity and importance of a teacher. Many graduates of the department occupy high positions in production and scientific organizations. Thirty of them hold the degree of Candidate of Sciences, and one is a Doctor of Sciences. More than ten graduates of the department work in foreign countries.

As a leading specialist in exploration geophysics, Professor, Doctor D. S. Mikov, by invitation, delivered lectures at the Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute and at the Institute of Oil and Gas in Ivano-Frankovsk. Since 1957 Professor D. S. Mikov has been a member of the Geophysics Section of the Expert Geological Council of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, and a member of the Methodological Council under the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the RSFSR.

For his work, D. S. Mikov has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the medal “For Valiant Labor,” and the jubilee medal “In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of V. I. Lenin.”

The entire life and work of D. S. Mikov is an instructive example of principled, creative, and honest labor for the good of our Motherland. Only thanks to the Great October Socialist Revolution and Soviet power was D. S. Mikov—the son of completely illiterate parents—like many other people of our time, able to obtain a higher education and become a scholar and professor.

The staff of the Geological Prospecting Faculty congratulates Dmitrii Stepanovich Mikov on his 70th birthday and wishes him new creative successes and many years of life.