Vladimir Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov (12.05.1887—13.10.1963) was a Soviet physicist and an academician (1958; a corresponding member from 1946). He was born in Miass (now in the Chelyabinsk region). He graduated from St Petersburg University (1910). From 1917 he worked at Tomsk University (professor from 1920), and in 1929-61 he was also director of the Siberian Physico-Technical Institute.
His research concerned solid-state physics, metal physics and physical metallurgy, in particular the surface energy of crystals, the physical nature of strength and plasticity, crystallisation and recrystallisation, the cutting of metals and external friction. He developed the foundations of the theory of cutting, and proved theoretically and confirmed experimentally that metals can be cut at high speed. He was the author of a five-volume “Solid-State Physics”.
Hero of Socialist Labour (1957). USSR State Prize (1942). He founded a school of physicists.