1. Igor Dmytrenko: A Pioneer in Superconductivity
2. Research Career
3. Foundation of FTI
4. Significant Contributions
5. Scientific Discoveries
6. Later Career and Legacy
7. Awards and Recognition
8. Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR (1986)

Igor Dmytrenko: A Pioneer in Superconductivity

Early Life and Education

Igor Dmytrenko was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1928. Despite the challenges of World War II, he worked as a machinist in aviation repair workshops. After completing high school in 1946, he entered the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1952 with a degree in engineering physics.

Research Career

In 1953, Dmytrenko began his postgraduate research at the Institute of Physics and Technology (UFTI), specializing in low-temperature physics. In 1958, he defended his candidate's dissertation on magnetic susceptibility of metals.

Foundation of FTI

In 1959, Dmytrenko became part of the initiative to establish the Physico-Technical Institute of Low Temperatures of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (FTINT). The following year, he led the creation of its Superconducting Electronics Department.

Significant Contributions

In 1970, Dmytrenko defended his doctoral dissertation on the Josephson effect in weakly linked superconductors. He served as the first Deputy Director of FTINT for scientific research from 1970 to 1982. In 1972, he established the Physico-Technical Faculty and the Department of Technical Cryophysics at Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute.

Scientific Discoveries

Dmytrenko's research team investigated the behavior of thin-film superconductors in electromagnetic fields. In 1965, he experimentally confirmed electromagnetic radiation in tunnel structures, as predicted by Brian Josephson. These observations became the basis of his doctoral dissertation.

Dmytrenko's group discovered chaotic phenomena in superconducting systems and the quantization of magnetic flux in small cylinders of normal metals. They also conducted pioneering research on phase slipping in superconducting films as a mechanism for resistivity during current-induced superconductivity breakdown.

Later Career and Legacy

From 1988 until his death in 2009, Dmytrenko was an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He led the Superconducting and Mesoscopic Structures Department at FTINT as its chief scientist.

Under Dmytrenko's leadership, FTINT made significant applied developments, including broadband superconducting cryogenic thermometers, highly sensitive quantum magnetometers, and the first magnetocardiograph in the Soviet Union. His team also developed the first SQUID in the Soviet Union in 1967 and the first domestic bolometers.

Awards and Recognition

Dmytrenko received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including:

Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR (1986)

State Prize of Ukraine (2000)
Order of the Badge of Honor

Physics