Oleg Vsevolodovich Mazurin (on his 90th birthday)

July 21, 2017 marks the 90th birthday of an outstanding Russian scientist who is known worldwide for his work in the field of physical and chemical properties of glasses and is a distinguished contributor to science, professor, and doctor of technical sciences: Oleg Vsevolodovich Mazurin.
The scientific career of O. V. Mazurin began at the Lensovet Leningrad Institute of Technology under the supervision of Professor K. S. Evstrop’ev in the oldest Department of Technology of Glass and Sitalls in the Soviet Union, where his teachers were the famous scientists V. V. Vargin, N. N. Kachalov, and N. A. Toropov. In this department, Oleg Vsevolodovich defended his candidacy (in 1953), and subsequently, his doctoral dissertation (in 1962). The results of the studies on the electrical properties of glasses conducted by the author of the dissertations together with his numerous students were pertinent to the electronic, electrical, and radioengineering industries. They formed the basis of a unique monograph on the electrical properties of glass that was written in Russian and has been cited for almost half a century since its publication, demonstrating its enduring significance.
The most remarkable period of the scientific endeavors of Oleg Vsevolodovich was the years he worked at the I. V. Grebenshchikov Institute of Silicate Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (ICS RAS), where he came to head the Laboratory of Chemistry of Glass, the oldest division of the institute. Its research direction had been defined by Il’ya Vasil’evich Grebenshchikov before the Second World War. S. K. Dubrovo, a well-known specialist in the field of chemical stability of glasses, was the head of the laboratory then. It was the combination of the traditions of the laboratory and the new interests of Oleg Vsevolodovich—the study of the characteristic features of the concentration dependences of the physicochemical properties of glasses—that led to the establishment of a new division at the ICS RAS, namely, the Laboratory of Physical and Chemical Properties of Glass (LPCPG), which was internationally recognized in the 1990s. At this stage, the scientific interests of the head of the LPCPG included the study of the nature of the vitrification of oxides, polymers, and metallic systems; the rheological properties of glasses and melts; and their thermal expansion and chemical stability. The results of the research on two-phase glasses outlined in three monographs, one of which was published in English, were particularly important both for the theory of phase separation and application of microporous plates obtained during the leaching of liquated glasses.
O. V. Mazurin has an exceptional gift to recognize the most fundamental current problems in the science of glass. Consequently, he directed complex studies (at the highest experimental level) that could clearly and unequivocally answer numerous questions that had been previously considered unsolvable, e.g., investigations of structural relaxation and studies of the kinetic nature of vitrification. These results constitute a key knowledge base for the research on the vitreous state and are used globally as the most authoritative accounts.
The six-volume handbook, Properties of Glasses and Glass-Forming Melts, compiled under the supervision of Mazurin and published from 1973 to 1998 by the publishing house Nauka, has become extremely popular. Simultaneously, from 1982 to 1993, parts A to E of the handbook were translated into English and published by Elsevier in The Netherlands. Presently, O. V. Mazurin continues to work actively, improving the electronic information system SciGlass, which currently includes published data on the properties of more than 350,000 compositions of glasses and is valued by scientists universally.
Oleg Vsevolodovich Mazurin is the type of scientist who manages to put into practice several of his own ideas. His successful combination of scientific research and training of scientists has provided dozens of doctors and candidates of sciences, working internationally in industry, research institutes, and academia, the opportunity to consider him their teacher. He has published several hundred scientific articles and 15 monographs.

O. V. Mazurin is distinguished by his impeccable honesty as a person, leader, and scientist; he does not hesitate to tell the truth either to a colleague who made a mistake or to a decision maker. He always selflessly supports anyone who asks him for help and easily shares his ideas. Even after many years, Oleg Vsevolodovich continues to maintain creative contacts with his former students. His exceptional responsiveness and benevolent attitude to all who need his help and the ability to nurture friendships turn his students into his sincere and equally selfless friends like himself. Numerous generations of scientists are indebted to him for his thoughtful advice that had a significant impact on not only solving current problems but also on shaping the scientific careers of entire research teams.
A wonderful husband, father, and grandfather, Oleg Vsevolodovich is the head of a large and close-knit family.
Before the collapse of the USSR, for several decades, O. V. Mazurin had been the most active member of the Section on the Structure of Glass and the Nature of the Glassy State of the Scientific Councils of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology and the USSR Academy of Sciences. With his active participation, various All-Union conferences and symposiums on the vitreous state, electrical, and physicochemical properties of glasses were held, and in 1989, the XV International Congress on Glass was organized. O. V. Mazurin invited leading foreign scientists to participate in these scientific events and edited and sought publication of their works that led to the rapid recognition of the multiple achievements of national science abroad.
Oleg Vsevolodovich devoted significant time and effort to his editorial work by leading the editorial board of the journal Fizika i Khimiya Stekla during the difficult perestroika years in the 1990s. Owing to its active work during that period, the scientific level of the articles published in the journal and his international standing significantly increased, and the journal began to be translated into English on a regular basis, thereby strongly expanding its readership. For several years, Oleg Vsevolodovich was the regional editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids.
In the early 1990s, with the direct participation of O. V. Mazurin, the OOO “TERMÉKS” established a scientific research department where high-quality measurements of the properties of glasses and melts were performed to simulate the annealing and tempering processes of glass. Training a new generation of specialists and professionals for conducting research at the same high level is one of the tasks for his grateful students who continue his work.
At the XIX International Congress on Glass conducted in Edinburgh in 2001, Oleg Vsevolodovich Mazurin received (the first and, till date, the only Russian scientist awardee) the international award of the President of the International Commission on Glass awarded to outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions to the development of glass science and international cooperation in this area. In addition to our jubilarian, this prize was also awarded to Gan Fuxi (China), who in the early 1960s had conducted his internship in the laboratory of A. A. Appen at the ICS RAS, and to Pierre Gillard (Belgium), who had proposed, together with De Bast, the use of a fractional exponent to describe the changes in the properties of glass because of the relaxation of its structure after heat treatment in the interval of vitrification.
We wish Oleg Vsevolodovich Mazurin good health, continuation of his active life, and further creative successes!

Colleagues, coworkers, and friends
St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology
S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute
Editorial Staff of Opticheskiı˘ Zhurnal