Roald Sagdeev

Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland.

Director Emeritus of the Space Research Institute, the Moscow-based center of the Russian space exploration program.

Dr. Sagdeev, one of the youngest scientists ever elected a full academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, served as Director of the Space Research Institute for fifteen years. Under his direction, many important projects were realized, including the joint US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz, the Venera series to Venus, as well as the international missions to Halley's Comet and later to Phobos, a moon of Mars. These last two projects were devised and implemented by Academician Sagdeev, in cooperation with more than twelve countries.

Before his appointment to the Space Research Institute in 1973, Roald Sagdeev had a distinguished career in nuclear science as a plasma physicist. His work on the behavior of hot plasma and controlled thermo-nuclear fusion at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and later at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Akademgorodok, Siberia, has received many prestigious prizes and is recognized internationally.

Dr. Sagdeev has been elected a member of many national scientific academies and societies around the world, including the National Academy of Sciences (USA), The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (USA), the Royal Swedish Academy, the Royal Astronomical Society (UK), The Max Plank Society (Germany), The International Academy of Astronomics, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Third World Academy. He was the first Soviet scientist ever elected to the Vatican Academy of Sciences.

In addition to his scientific career and his work to promote international cooperation in science, Roald Sagdeev also played an outspoken political role during the first five years of perestroika. Elected to the Supreme Soviet in 1987, he served as a summit advisor to Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze at three summits: Geneva (1985), Washington (1987) and Moscow (1988). He also served as an advisor to Gorbachev on issues related to civilian space and space-based weapons systems. From 1987-1991, he served as a deputy in the USSR's Congress of People's Deputies, pushing a radical reform agenda.