Andreev, Nikolai Nikolayevich

Nikolai Nikolayevich Andreev (28.VII 1880 - 31.XII 1970) was a Soviet physicist and an academician (1953; corresponding member 1933). He was born in the village of Kurmany (now in the Sumy region). He graduated from the University of Basel (1909). In 1912-18 and 1924-25 he worked at Moscow University; in 1920—26 he was head of a laboratory at the All-Union Experimental Electrotechnical Institute; in 1926—38 head of the acoustics department and deputy director of the Leningrad Physico-Technical Laboratory (from 1930 the Electrophysical Institute), and associate professor and then professor at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1940—53 he was head of the acoustics laboratory of the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1953 head of a department at the Acoustics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His main research was in acoustics (hydroacoustics, architectural, biological and nonlinear acoustics). He gave a rigorous theory of the propagation of sound in moving media. He carried out studies on the theory of the propagation of sound along absorbing surfaces, on the theory of acoustic filters and on sound waves of finite amplitude. A number of his works deal with the spectrum of damped oscillations, with the study of oscillations in crystalline and anisotropic media and with questions of the reverberation of sound and of sound insulation. Under his direction, research was begun in this country on nonlinear acoustics, on the propagation of sound in layered media and on electromechanical active materials. He founded a school in physical and technical acoustics. Hero of Socialist Labour (1970).