К 100-ЛЕТИЮ ВЫДАЮЩЕГО СОВЕТСКОГО УЧЕНОГО ПРОФЕССОРА К.С. ШИФРИНА 1918–2011

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the outstanding scientist professor K.S. Shifrin, who led optical research at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology from 1969 to 1992. He performed scientific works of world level in various fields of physics, including the electrical properties of semiconductors, the scattering of electromagnetic waves by particles, the inverse scattering problem, the transfer of radiation in the atmosphere, the kinetics of cloud formation and precipitation, the passive thermal radiolocation, ocean and atmospheric optics. His first world-famous work related to development of the theory of electrical properties of well-conducting semiconductors, was published in the Journal of Technical Physics in 1944. During the widespread development of semiconductor technology after the Second World War, it was found that the Shifrin’s theory gave a correct explanation for many practically important effects. A significant part of Shifrin‘s scientific activity was connected with theoretical studies of the scattering of electromagnetic radiation by particles. His book «Scattering of light in a turbid environment» published in 1951, was the first in the world monograph on the theory of single scattering of light by particles. Shifrin was a founder of the method of microwave radio thermal locating (RTL). The world‘s first collection of articles on this issue, edited by him, was published in 1968 and soon translated into English. At present the RTL all-weather method is widely used for satellite measurements of sea surface temperature, ice cover and other parameters. Professor Shifrin made a great contribution to development of methods for solving the inverse problem of the light scattering theory, that is the retrieval of the particle size distribution from their light scattering characteristics. Under the Shifrin‘s leadership, a wide range of problems in ocean optics was studied: the theory of light absorption and scattering by sea water, determination of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the marine suspended matter from the light scattering data, and the use of optical methods in satellite oceanology. In 1983 he published a monograph «Introduction to the Ocean Optics», translated into English as «Physical Optics of Ocean Water». Professor K.S. Shifrin was a founder of the All-Union plenums on the ocean optics; under his guidance, 51 PhD theses were defended, he was a consultant of nine Dr. Sci. theses. From 1992 to 2003 he was a professor at the Oregon University, USA. Died in 2011; his ashes is buried in the Preobrazhenskom Cemetery in St. Petersburg.