50 years of Academic Science in Tomsk

Autumn of 2019 Tomsk academic science celebrates its half-centenary. Its history dates back to the foundation of the first research institute in 1969, the Institute of Atmospheric Optics of SB AS USSR, it was the starting point for the further development of institute network and their integration into the Regional Scientific Center of Siberian Branch of RAS.

Yegor Kuzmich Ligatchev, First Secretary of the regional committee of CPSU, and academicians Vladimir Yevseyevich Zuev and Gennadiy Andreyevich Mesyats were the founding fathers of academic science in Tomsk, but first attempts were made in universities’ labs, and scientific schools appeared in Tomsk in the first half of the XXth century.

In 1968 the government resolutions of the foundation of research institutes in Tomsk mentioned two institutions: the Institute of Atmospheric Optics and the Institute of Petroleum Chemistry. Herewith, from the very beginning, the independent Department of High Current Electronics headed by G. A. Mesyats was a part of IAO and later developed into the Institute of High Current Electronics in 1977. In 1972, the academician V.E. Zuev managed to arrange for the foundation of one more research institution in Tomsk, Special Design Bureau of Scientific Instrument Engineering “Optica”, which over the years became the Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems. In 1979 one of the leading scientific schools in solid state physics joined the “academic” movement, the Department of Solid State Physics headed by V.E. Panin was formed as a part of IAO, developed into the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science in 1984. Tomsk Branch of SB AS USSR was established in 1978, and ten years later reorganized into Tomsk Scientific Center SB RAS.

Meanwhile, Akademgorodok was built, outpacing other regional scientific centers of Siberian Branch of AS USSR. Institute employees along with other citizens took part in building not only the institutes’ buildings and accommodations, but also two nursery schools, a secondary school, a polyclinic, sports facilities and the unique Congress center “Rubin”.

Nowadays Tomsk academic science is a well-established science and research center gained international recognition. Apart from five research institutes and Tomsk Scientific Center of SB RAS, there are two research branches in Akademgorodok, Tomsk Branch of Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics SB RAS, founded in 1997, and Tomsk Branch of Institute Computational Technologies SB RAS, founded in 2011. Akademgorodok itself is being developed: new accommodations are being built and Akademgorodok local festivities are to accompany the process.