CHRONICLES

TSOTNE EVGEN'EVICH MIRTSKHULAVA CELEBRATES

HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY

On July 25, 1980, one of the most celebrated specialist in the field of hydraulic en- gineering and land reclamation, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Honorary Promoter of Science and Engineer- ing of the Georgian SSR, Tsotne Evgen'evich Mirtskhulava celebrated his 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of his industrial, scientific, and teaching career.

On graduating with distinction from the Georgian Polytechnic Institute in 1942, Mr. Mirtskhulava went to work in the trust "Gruzneft','! which deals with problems of construction and design. In 1954 he transferred to the Georgian Scientific-Research Institute of Hydrau- lic Engineering and Land Reclamation'in the position of senior scientific collaborator, and then as director of the Division of Hydraulic Structures.

Fundamental studies on hydraulics, hydrology, hydraulic engineering, and engineering reclamation and also on real problems -- the stability of natural and artificial channels, the allowable (nonscour) velocities of channel flows, the prediction of channel deformation, the processes of water erosion and its control, and the mechanism of alluvial drift -- were conducted at the institute under his supervision and direct participation.

The results of the extensive studies are codified in his monographs "Channel scour and methods for evaluating channel stability" and "Engineering methods of computing and predict- ing water erosion," as well as in a number of regulatory documents intended for the design of hydraulic and water-reclamation structures. Mr. Mirtskhulava's works devoted to the theory of the reliability of water-reclamation systems and engineering structures have re- ceived broad recognition.

Mr. Mirtskhulava successfully defended his doctoral thesis in 1960 at the Moscow Water- Reclamation Institute, and acquired the academic status of professor in 1964. He worked as deputy director of the Georgian Scientific-Research Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Land Reclamation in 1965-1968, and as its director since 1968.

Mr. Mirtskhulava is a member of the Soviet National Committee of the International As- sociation on Hydraulic Research (IAHR) and the International Committee on Irri~ation and Drainage (ICID). He has participated in many international congresses. Mr. Mirtskhulava is a member of the editorial staff of the International Journal of Hydraulic Research, which is published in the Netherlands.

He has authored 160 published scientific works, many of which were conducted abroad.

Mr. Mirtskhulava has imparted his own knowledge and experience to the younger genera- tion. Since 1952 he has given lectures in the Georgian Polytechnic Institute, and 20 candi- dates and scientific collaborators have successfully defended their theses under his super- vision.

He is chairman of the reclamation and water conservation section of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Science and Technology, and the Problem Council on Land Reclamation of the Ministry of Water Conservation of the USSR, and a member of many depart- mental scientific--technical and specialized councils on the awarding of academic degrees.

For his major contributions to the development of Soviet science, Mr. Mirtskhulava has been awarded orders of Lenin and Labor Red Banner, two orders of "Badge of Honor," and other governmental awards.

He was elected a member-correspondent of the All-Union Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1970, and an active member of this academy in 1972.

Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 8, p, 59, August, 1980.

0018-8220/80/0008-0865507.50 �9 1981 Plenum Publishing Corporation 865

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Mr. Mirtskhulava is still serving the development of Soviet science actively and with enviable energy~

The collective of the Georgian Scientific-Research Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Land Reclamation and land-reclamatlon and water-conservation workers as well as the editorial s=aff of the journal heartily congratulate Tsotne Ev~en'evich Mirtskhulava on his 60th birthday and wish him good health, long life, and new successes in science for the well being of our motherland.