Mikhail Mikhaylovich Shultz (, also spelled Schultz, Shul'ts, Shults, Shul’c etc.) (1 July 1919 – 9 October 2006), was a Soviet/Russian physical chemist, and an artist.
In Soviet Union, Russia, and outside Shultz is primarily known for his research in the chemical thermodynamics of heterogeneous chemical compounds, electrochemistry of glasses, membrane electrochemistry; for works in the field of ion exchange and phase equilibria of multicomponent compounds, and theory of glass electrode; Shultz also worked on thermal protection system for the Soviet Buran spacecraft and credited with research in optical fibers in 80s.
His works helped to contribute into creation of early pH-meters and ionometry, production organisation, instrumentation and materials commonly used in medicine, chemical and nuclear industry, aviation rocket and space technology, agriculture and many other areas.
Biography
Mikhail Shultz was a son of Mikhail Alexandrovich Shultz (1896–1954; the Naval officer, belonging to the latest issue of the Imperial Naval Cadet Corps — 1916) and a great-grandson of the Russian physicist Dmitry Aleksandrovich Lachinov (1842—1902).
M. Shultz was a descendant of the German sculptor, the Danish royal medallist Anton Schultz (Anton Schultz — Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, Hamburg, Denmark, XVII–XVIII cc.) who carried out orders the Russian Court as early as Copenhagen, and arrived at the service in Russia with Peter the Great.
He was born on 1 July 1919 in Petrograd, in 1937—graduated with honours from high school (Staraya Russa; where he deported with his mother Helen (née Barsukova) in 1929, his father M. A. Shultz was arrested in 1925 as a suspect in the «counter-revolutionary monarchist conspiracy»; he spent 10 years in Solovki prison camp, and 3 years on the construction of the Moscow Canal. released in 1937, rehabilitated in 1991).
1937–1941—a student of the chemical faculty of the Leningrad State University (M. Schulz, was a talented artist—when he arrived in Leningrad in 1937, he was faced a choice: to enter the Academy of Fine Arts, or go to university, ... and although he considered himself an dilettante, his works show the realisation of talent for this part), in 1938—joined the All-Union Chemical Society named by D. I. Mendeleev, in 1941–1945—a volunteer on The Great Patriotic War, first lieutenant, chief of the chemical service of battalion.
Scientific career
1947—graduated with honours from the Chemical faculty of the Leningrad State University; 1947—1950 – the Post-graduate under the supervision of professor Boris Petrovich Nikolsky). 1951—the Candidate of chemical sciences (thesis «Study of sodium function of glass electrodes»). 1950–1959—the Assistant and from 1953—the Associate Professor of physical chemistry chair of the Leningrad State University Chemical faculty, cooperation with professor Aleksey Vasilyevich Storonkin, his second teacher, in the field of thermodynamics of heterogeneous systems. 1956–1972—Head of Laboratory of the electrochemistry of glass, which he founded in the Research Institute of Chemistry of the Leningrad State University, which together with a number of other institutions was carrying out the government order to develop means of pH-metry (since 1954; including the monitoring of nuclear and plutonium synthesis), he organised a systematic study of electrode properties of glasses, depending on their composition. 1965—the Doctor of chemical sciences (thesis: «Electrode properties of glasses»), approved in the rank of professor exercises. 1967—1972—the Dean of the Leningrad State University Chemical faculty. 1972—the Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1972–1998—the Director of the Institute of Silicate Chemistry (USSR Academy of Sciences; later — Russian Academy of Sciences); in that period a new building was constructed and the Institute square tripled. 1975–1990—the Chief-Editor of the magazine «Physics and Chemistry of Glass» of the USSR Academy of Sciences (established by Shultz; released since 1975). 1979—the Academician (the USSR Academy of Sciences; from 1991—RAS).
Scientific accomplishments
Mikhail Shultz is the author of fundamental works on physical chemistry, thermodynamics, chemistry and electrochemistry of glass, membrane electrochemistry, the theory of ion-exchange and phase equilibria of multi-component systems, for a total of more than 500 scientific papers, including several monographs, and approximately 20 inventions