Keldysh, Vsevolod Mikhailovich

Born June 13 (25), 1878, in Vladikavkaz, present-day Ordzhonikidze; died Nov. 19,1965, in Moscow. Soviet scientist in structural engineering; Honored Scientist and Engineer of the RSFSR (1944) and doctor of engineering sciences. Became a member of the CPSU in 1945.

In 1902, Keldysh graduated from the Riga Polytechnic Institute. Beginning in 1918 he was a professor at a number of institutes and the V. V. Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy (1932). He was a major general of the engineering and technical service. He participated in the design, evaluation, and acceptance of many major construction projects in the USSR, including the Moscow Canal, the Moscow V. I. Lenin Subway, and the Dnieper Aluminum Plant. He was one of the founders of the methods for design calculations of reinforced-concrete structural members according to destructive stress, as well as the method for calculating structural elements according to limiting states, which has been the basis of the construction standards and rules in effect in the USSR since 1959. For many years Keldysh was a member of the Central Board of the Scientific and Technical Society for the Construction Industry. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and three other orders, as well as medals.