On May 27, 2021, the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology hosted the opening of a World-class Laboratory "LaMiUr" within the framework of a project of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF).
The supported project should not only contribute significantly to the development of science, but also create the foundation for responding to the “big challenges” outlined in the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of Russia. The research should produce results that are in demand by the economic and social spheres of the country. Provided that the projects are successfully completed, the laboratory will be able to compete for an extension of the funding for another three years.
The scientific mission of the SPSIT(TU) laboratory is the "advancement of technologies for the processing of chemical industry waste into finished products." The team of "LaMiUr" consists of staff members from the following departments: processes and apparatuses, chemistry and technology of materials and products of sorption technology, technology of rare elements and nanomaterials based on them, general chemical technology and catalysis, as well as computer-aided design and control systems. The executive supervisors of the project are professors A. Garabadzhiu, O. Flisyuk and V. Samonin. The laboratory staff includes 30 people, more than half of whom are graduate students, young lecturers and researchers.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Meshalkin, who acts as the scientific director of the World-Class Laboratory at the SPSIT(TU), is the founder of a new scientific direction in chemical technology: "Theoretical foundations of structural and parametric engineering, reliability assurance and logistics management of energy-saving chemical technology systems (CTSs) for the production of high-quality products."
In 1964, V. Meshalkin graduated with honors from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Department of Automation and Telemechanics). In 1968, he was invited by Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Kafarov to attend graduate school of the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (MUCTR). In 1983, while working at the MUCTR as an associate professor in the Department of Cybernetics of Chemical and Technological Processes, then headed by Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Kafarov, Meshalkin defended his doctoral dissertation on the principles and methods of automated synthesis of optimal energy-saving CTSs.
V. Meshalkin is the head of the Department of Logistics and Economic Information, director of the International Institute of Logistics of Resource Conservation and Technological Innovation of the D.I. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, board member of the Bureau of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Global Environmental Problems, and chief researcher of the N.S. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. Meshalkin has trained 14 Doctors of Sciences and 101 Candidates of Sciences.
