Igor Yevgenyevich Irodov (Russian: Игорь Евгеньевич Иродов; 16 November 1923 – 22 October 2002) was a Soviet Russian physicist and World War II veteran. He is best known as a physics professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering (MEPHi) and as the author of a series of handbooks on general physics, which became lecture courses in physics in several countries.[1]
In October 1945, Irodov was demobilized and sent to Moscow to recover his health. In February 1946, he entered the Physics Faculty of MEPHi, graduating with honors in November 1950 with a diploma of designer and operator of physics equipment. After that, he worked on his PhD titled Focusing and dispersive properties of particular magnetic fields (Russian: Исследование фокусирующих и диспергирующих свойств некоторых вариантов магнитных полей), which he defended in May 1956 under AcademicianLev Artsimovich. Starting in 1954, he worked at the General Physics Department of MEPHi, first as a lecturer and, since 1976, as a full professor.[1]
Publications
In 1957, Irodov published his first book, a collection of problems in atomic physics, which was republished in 1959 and later translated into Polish, Romanian and English. Its eighth and expanded edition, issued in 2002, became Irodov's last substantial work. He also published collections of problems in general physics in 1968 and 1979, which are still used by many students around the world to hone their physics skills and prepare for various Engineering Entrance Exams.[1]
Irodov spent 27 years of his life writing a series of handbooks that fully covered a university course on general physics. He published the first part (mechanics) in 1975, the second part (electromagnetism) in 1983, and the full set from 1999 to 2001. In his handbooks, Irodov aimed for brevity, crafting concise and clear definitions while removing unessential details and heavy calculus, and he focused on relating theory to practical examples and problems.[1]
