Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev

Born Oct. 20 (Nov. 2), 1902, in Nizhny Novgorod, present-day Gorky; died July 3, 1974, in Moscow. Soviet scientist in electrical engineering and computer technology; academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953), academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1945), Hero of Socialist Labor (1956). Became a member of the CPSU in 1946.

After graduating from the Moscow Higher Technical School in 1928, Lebedev worked at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. From 1946 to 1951 he was the director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1952 he became a professor at the Moscow Physicotechnical Institute. He became director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1953.

Lebedev was one of the first in the USSR to work on the problem of stability in power systems. He was the author of the theory of artificial stability of synchronous machines. He did important work on the problems of computer technology and on the theory of calculators and their components. The first Soviet MESM electronic digital computer, as well as a series of highspeed computers (BESM), was developed under his direction. He was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1966 and the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 and 1969. He has received four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and medals.