Yury Yu. Dmitriev
(19.12.1939 - 12.08.2012)
Professor

Yury Yu. Dmitriev was born on December 19, 1939. After graduation from the Physics Department of Leningrad State University he studied three more years in the graduate school. In 1965 he got his Ph.D and accepted a position of junior research assistant at the Quantum Mechanics Division. His scientific adviser was Professor Pallady P. Pavinsky but from the very beginning Yu. Yu. Dmitriev showed a great deal of independence. Actually he chose the subject of his Ph.D. thesis on his own. His early studies concerned quantum-mechanical variation principles for matrix elements of various operators. The results of these studies have not lost their importance up to now. Later Yu. Yu. Dmitriev worked on applications of quantum field theory methods in quantum mechanics.

In 1970-s he became interested in quantum electrodynamics of heavy atoms and highly charged ions. The results of his research are presented in the monograph "Relativistic Effects in the Spectra of Atomic Systems" (with coauthors Leonti N. Labzowsky and Galina L. Klimchitskaya) published in 1993 by the Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd. These results formed a basis of his second thesis for a Doctor of Science degree.

In 1980-s Yu. Yu. Dmitriev started exploration of entirely different area of quantum theory, relativistic calculations of molecular electronic structure, particularly that of diatomic molecules containing heavy atoms. Along with development of effective computational methods he personally performed such calculations and achieved thereby a great success. Not long before his tragic death in the street accident Yu. Yu. Dmitriev managed to solve the problem of combining quantum-mechanical many-particle theory with quantum electrodynamics. He achieved that by original reformulation of the many-particle problem into the one-particle problem which made further application of QED theory possible.

Yu. Yu. Dmitriev always paid much attention to pedagogical work. He delivered basic courses on quantum mechanics as well as advanced courses on quantum field theoretical methods and was a scientific adviser of many undergraduate and graduate students. Some of his former students are now well known scientists.

Yu. Yu. Dmitriev was widely known among the world community of physicists dealing with problems of quantum theory of atoms and molecules. He maintained collaboration with research institutions in Sweden, Germany and Canada and visited these countries more than once. He was a well educated person interested in arts, literature, and foreign languages. He will be remembered for his remarkable contribution to science and for his professional and personal qualities.

Selected publications

Lectures on "Elementary introduction to non-elementary methods in quantum mechanics" (pdf, ps).