Профессор Дмитрий Юрьевич Панов: от авиации к информатике

Вопросы истории естествознания и техники. 2023. Т. 44. № 1. С. 128–151.

Крайнева И. А., Shilov V.

The article is devoted to Dmitry Yurievich Panov (1904–1975), a mathematician who in the 1930s – 1970s worked for the leading Soviet research and education institutions in the defense and civil sectors. He was one of the pioneers in the aircraft industry, creation of anti-missile defense systems, digital computing technologies and their applications, and engineering psychology. He also developed data support systems for science. Undoubtedly, these were cutting-edge projects, new forms of higher education organization and management that he intuitively felt to be significant. Being an ingenious and creative person, encyclopedically educated and erudite, Panov had no difficulties in engaging in new areas of activities and, even if he had not made major breakthroughs in these areas, he became very well aware of new challenges and tried to organize the teams that were best fit to address the respective tasks. People like him – the erudites, organizers, and communicators – are very valuable for science, being vital in creating scientific environment and atmosphere, conducive to science growth and development. If scientific society is presented as a pyramid, people like Panov would be placed in its central part, forming the link between the base and the top. Our approach to studying Panov’s biography is based on three levels of narration: personal, socioprofessional, and contextual (historical). The sources included the materials from the departmental archives, Panov’s scientific publications, and the recollections of his former colleagues at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the V. S. Semenikhin Research Institute of Automatic Equipment.

Keywords: социология, прикладная математика, вычислительная техника, история науки и техники, инженерная психология, кибернетика, машинный перевод, Д. Ю. Панов, ЦАГИ, ИТМиВТ РАН, ВИНИТИ РАН, НИИАА