Sagdeev, R. Z.
Oral history interview with Roald Sagdeev, 2020 May 21.
Interview with Roald Sagdeev, professor of physics emeritus at the University of Maryland. He recounts his familys ethnic Tatar heritage, his childhood in Kazan, and his familys experience during World War II. Sagdeev describes his physics education at Moscow State University, and how he felt regarding the larger issues of physics and Soviet national security especially during his time in Sarov, which was the equivalent of Los Alamos National Lab for nuclear weapons research. He discusses his work on radiation transport in stellar atmospheres, his subsequent research at the Kurchatov Institute, and his graduate research in controlled nucleosynthesis under the direction of Lev Landau. Sagdeev describes this time as the origins of his expertise in plasma physics and he explains the work he was doing at a classified site in Siberia. He explains how major Cold War events including the Cuban Missile Crisis and nuclear diplomacy affected his career and his moral satisfaction in not contributing to weapons science. Sagdeev discusses his work at the Institute of Physics of High Temperatures, and his developing interests in astrophysics, and he explains his subsequent tenure at the Space Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences, and why the American moon landing demonstrated that Russia had ceded its dominance in the Space Race. He explains why manned space missions were always more politicized than unmanned missions and describes the political value of the Soviet-US Soyuz-Apollo test project as an opportunity for hand shaking in space. Sagdeev discusses his experiences advising Gorbachev on disarmament negotiations, and he shares his perspective on SDI and why it was actually the Pershing missile system that contributed more to the Soviet collapse than U.S. defense spending under Reagan. He describes witnessing the end of the Cold War as watching a movie in slow motion, and he explains how he met Susan Eisenhower and the circumstances leading to his move to the United States, where he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland and served as an adviser to NASA. Sagdeev explains his current interests in intergalactic shock waves and he shares his ideas on the newly formed U.S. Space Force and the weaponizing of space. At the end of the interview, Sagdeev shares that if he could start his career all over again, he would focus on neuroscience.
Roald Sagdeev is a professor of physics emeritus at the University of Maryland. Sagdeev completed his studies in physics at Moscow State University and worked at Russian research labs such as Sarov and the Kurchatov Institute. He is a former director of the Russian Space Research Institute and former science advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Andropov, I U . V. (I U ri Vladimirovich), 1914-1984
Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931-
Kapit s a, P. L. (Petr Leonidovich), 1894-1984
Landau, L. D. (Lev Davidovich), 1908-1968
Rosenbluth, M. N.
Sagdeev, R. Z.
Sakharov, Andre , 1921-1989
Spitzer, Lyman, 1914-1997
Moskovski gosudarstvenny universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova
Project Apollo (U.S.)
Rossi skaia akademiia nauk.
Rossi ski nauchny t s entr "Kurchatovski institut"
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
University of Maryland at College Park
Astrophysics
Cold War
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.
Disarmament.
Manned space flight
Nuclear weapons
Nucleosynthesis
Plasma physics.
Science and state -- Russia (Federation)
Space race.
Strategic Defense Initiative
Soviet Union
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA