Andrei Grigoryevich Ugodchikov (November 3, 1920, Vetluga (disambiguation) — 2007) was a Soviet and Russian scientist in the field of mechanics, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, and honored worker of science and technology. He served as rector of Gorky State University (GSU) from 1969 to 1988 — the longest rectorship in the university's Soviet-era history. Honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (2003).[1]
Biography and education
He was born into the family of a soldier, Grigory Afanasyevich Ugodchikov, and Maria Yulianovna Sosnovskaya, the daughter of a colonel of the Russian Imperial Army General Staff. In 1928 the family moved to Nizhny Novgorod; that same year Andrei entered School No. 8, which he graduated from with honors in 1938. Immediately after school he entered the automotive transport faculty of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute, which he also graduated from with honors in 1943.[1]
From 1943 to 1946 he worked at factories of the USSR Ministry of Armament. He then entered postgraduate study in the specialty "Strength of Materials" at the Gorky Institute of Water Transport Engineers. He defended his candidate dissertation in 1950 and his doctoral dissertation in 1957, and received the rank of professor in 1960.[1]
Scientific and teaching career
Until 1967 Ugodchikov taught at the Gorky Institute of Civil Engineering, successively heading the Department of Structural Mechanics (1958–1966) and the Department of Strength of Materials and Elasticity Theory (1966–1967). In 1967 he moved to Gorky State University. In 1968 he founded the Department of Elasticity and Plasticity Theory at the Gorky Research Institute of Physics and Technology (GIFTI).[1]
From March 31, 1969, he served as rector of GSU; concurrently, from 1974 to 1988, he headed the Research Institute of Mechanics of the university. During his rectorship (data for 1971–1976), the university graduated 9,000 specialists, 33 doctoral and 240 candidate dissertations were defended, six new departments were opened, and buildings for the Research Institute of Mechanics, a new dining hall, a dormitory, and a residential building for faculty were constructed, along with the installation of a BESM-6 computer. As a result of these years, GSU rose from 10th place to a stable 4th–5th place among the leading universities of the USSR.[1]
By order of the RSFSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education dated February 18, 1969, GSU was designated the lead university of the Volga-Vyatka economic region. The university was tasked with training students, coordinating research at universities within the region, implementing scientific results in the national economy, and assisting enterprises of Gorky Oblast. Ugodchikov headed the regional scientific-methodological council of the RSFSR Ministry of Higher Education for the Volga-Vyatka economic region from 1972 to 1988.[1]
Recognition and honors
Ugodchikov was an honorary professor of Lobachevsky Lobachevsky University, an honorary member of the International Academy of Sciences of Higher Education, and a member of the National Committee of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. In 1987–1991 he served on the Committee for the Award of State Prizes in Science and Technology of the RSFSR. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[1]
Sources
- museum.unn.ru — Andrei Grigoryevich Ugodchikov (1920-2007) — Museum of Lobachevsky University (archive)