Viktor Mikhaylov (academic)

Viktor Nikitovich Mikhaylov (Russian: Виктор Никитович Михайлов; February 12, 1934 – June 25, 2011) was a Soviet and Russian nuclear scientist and government minister. From 1969 to 1988 Mikhaylov directed the Research Institute of Nuclear Impulse Technology. He personally oversaw more than 100 nuclear experiments during his directorship and spent over nine years at the Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya test sites. In 1992, Mikhaylov was selected to head the newly formed Ministry of Atomic Energy, or MinAtom (now Rosatom). Under his tenure Russia maintained its nuclear infrastructure and saw an increase in international cooperation on atomic energy growth. Starting in 1999, Mikhaylov led the Institute of Strategic Stability, and from 1992 to 2007 he was chairman of Rosatom's nuclear consulting division and manager of the Federal center for Nuclear Research. He was also the bearer of many other titles: Academician of RAS (1997) and of RARAN, Doctor of Engineering (1976), professor (1984) and Founder of the School of Explosive Fission Physics and Penetration Radiation Single Pulse Diagnostics.