Vladimir Alexandrovich Mikhelson (30.06.1860-27.02.1927) was a Russian physicist. He was born in Tulchin (now in Vinnitsa Region). He graduated from Moscow University (1883). From 1894 he was a professor at the Moscow Agricultural Institute (now the K. A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy).
His work was in the fields of the theory of thermal radiation, the physics of combustion, actinometry and meteorology. He studied the distribution of energy in the spectrum of a black body. He was the first to attempt, using statistical methods, to determine the Kirchhoff function (1887). He obtained a formula that conveys qualitatively correctly the form of the experimental curves of the distribution of energy in the radiation spectrum; in particular he established that the energy in the spectrum is distributed unevenly over wavelengths and that its maximum shifts towards short waves as the temperature rises. He generalised the Doppler principle to the case where the space between the observer and the source is filled with a refracting medium whose density changes rapidly.
He laid the foundations of a new scientific field, the physics of combustion, showed the role of the thermal conductivity of the hot mixture in the propagation of a flame front, and established the law relating the motion of the ignition front to the composition of the combustible gas mixture (1894). He created a number of actinometric instruments.