Today, January 13, marks the 125th birth anniversary of Marine Hydrophysical Institute founder, Academician Vasily V. Shuleikin.
Vasily V. Shuleikin (1895 — 1979) was an outstanding explorer of the World Ocean, the founder of domestic physics of the sea, academician, laureate of the State Prize, engineer-captain of the 1st rank.
V.V. Shuleikin was born on January 13, 1895 in a petty bourgeois family. He graduated from the Bazhanov Moscow Real School (formerly Fidler), then the Moscow Higher Technical School, having received a hydropower specialty.
Back in 1929, a young doctor of physical and mathematical sciences V.V. Shuleikin brought to life the idea of organizing a permanent Black Sea hydrophysical station — the foundation of the future Marine Hydrophysical Institute.
The name of this great scientist is associated with the first scientific achievements of MHI. These include the most important ones — from the point of view of both fundamental science and practical application — studies under his leadership of thermal waves in the ocean, thermal interaction between the ocean, atmosphere and continents, the effect of the ocean on climate and weather.
V.V. Shuleikin first introduced into geophysics a thermodynamic concept of heat engines operating in the ocean — atmosphere — mainland system. His efforts in Moscow in 1942 on the basis of the Marine Department of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences created the Marine Hydrophysical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which he headed. And after the war, May 13, 1948, when the Black Sea Hydrophysical Station and the Marine Hydrophysical Laboratory were transformed into the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician V.V. Shuleikin became its first director.
Academician V.V. Shuleikin and his students own a large number of experimental and theoretical works in such scientific areas as hydrooptics, hydroacoustics, electromagnetic phenomena in the sea, molecular biophysics and biophysics of the marine environment. V.V. Shuleikin created the national school of physicists-marine scientists. The scientist summarized the results of the research in the monograph Physics of the Sea, which was unique in the richness of the data presented, and was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1942. For fundamental and applied work carried out even during the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War and for the training of qualified personnel V.V. Shuleikin was awarded the orders of the Red Star and the Red Banner of Labor, two orders of Lenin and other orders and medals.