Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

July 8 is Family, Love and Fidelity Day in Russia. Despite the fact that Novosibirsk State University is quite young, many family dynasties have formed within its walls. In anticipation of the holiday, we interviewed Irina Georgievna and Evgeny Ivanovich Palchikov, professors of the Department of General Physics Physics Department of NSU, they recently celebrated their golden anniversary together. The couple told us a touching and heartfelt story about how they met, what path they have taken together, what life principles helped them overcome all difficulties and what they think about the future.

— How did you meet?

— Irina Georgievna: It’s quite banal. I was a first-year student at the Physics Department of NSU, and some of my friends were in the Mathematics Department, and we lived in the 6th dormitory. Sometimes we would drop in on each other to chat and have some tea. The girls were neat and thrifty in the German way, pleasant conversationalists, you could always relax with them, trying buns or cookies that they baked themselves. It was at one of these tea parties that I saw a physicist who was selflessly adjusting the antenna of an old TV (which was, indeed, not easy). My friend said that it was Zheka and that he would join us when the TV started working. But this did not happen during my presence. Most likely, he did not even notice me.

— Evgeny Ivanovich: I didn’t notice much at the time. I was in my fifth year. Radiative recombinations in Gunn diodes, lasers that Zhores Alferov and his colleagues brought and that needed to be tested in liquid nitrogen, heading the laboratories of the physics workshop at the Physics and Mathematics School, a special course at the Physics and Mathematics School, and even a diploma.

— What attracted you to each other?

— Irina Georgievna: We noticed each other much later, four years later, when, as they say, the time had come for a change. Summer school of the Physics and Mathematics School, my friend from the Faculty of Mathematics and I work as teachers and live in the same room. It is August outside, warm days alternate with warm rains, after lunch we go to the beach with the schoolchildren, and in the evening you can walk along the cool forest paths. The atmosphere is conducive to acquaintances and conversations. Evgeny Ivanovich graduated from the Physics and Mathematics School at NSU and, of course, understood very well the meaning and process of solving the problems that we analyzed with the schoolchildren. I graduated from Secondary School 176 in Novosibirsk and began teaching at the age of 12. The thing is that at that time it was customary to “pull up” the poor students, of whom there were plenty in our class, and I, a future gold medalist, was assigned to conduct additional classes with them. So Evgeny Ivanovich and I had a lot to talk about.

We got married in the spring of 1975. Our friends turned this event into a real Komsomol wedding, where everyone had fun and felt comfortable. Pleasant music, congratulations from relatives, funny pranks for the youth and, of course, delicious food.

— What is the basis of your relationship?

— Irina Georgievna: This is a very correct formulation of the question. The basis is always and in everything innate, and not acquired or nurtured qualities and forms of behavior. Evgeny Ivanovich and I had and have the same innate ideas about the relationship of genders in the family, which were supported by the family relationships of our parents and all the generations of our genealogy. That is, for us, the family is the only possible organization of life. We can say that our family is a typical example of an East Slavic family, we love life and each other – simple, clear, understandable.

Fate was not particularly kind to us. Our only beloved daughter was born. And one can say that our life is a road of changes. We walked through life along the path we chose at the beginning. Each of us worked hard and persistently in our chosen specialty, despite social storms and collapses in the country. We remained faithful to our ancestors, fatherland and calling. And not all of our friends managed to do this, who flew to different cities, countries and continents…

— Which of your spouse’s professional achievements do you consider the most significant?

— Evgeny Ivanovich: There are many achievements. Let’s start with the queen of the physics department J. At work — candidate, then doctor of technical sciences. Head of the laboratory at KTI NP SB RAS. At NSU — deputy dean of the physics department. In the family — she raised not only a daughter, but seriously participated in the upbringing and education of four grandchildren. And also household chores are a serious burden.

— Irina Georgievna: Evgeny Ivanovich is a famous Russian scientist. Here are just some of his achievements: research into the first Gunn diodes in the USSR, created at the ISP SB RAS in 1970-1972. The average person doesn’t know about them, but now they are the main device in every speedometer in the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and in road cameras, as well as in satellite dishes. Participation in the creation of the first CMOS photomatrix in the USSR in 1977, manufactured at NEVI (NPO Vostok) and in Novosibirsk. Then not for cameras, but for reading the information matrix in the holographic memory of a computer. Such memory was created at the IAP SB RAS. Development and creation in the 1970s-1980s of the first molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) installation in the USSR by the IAP jointly with NPO Vostok. Before the creation of MBE installations at the ISP SB RAS. Development and subsequent factory production of a series of pulsed X-ray devices of the PIR-600 series for the study of fast-flowing and explosive processes. All testing grounds and explosive laboratories of the USSR were provided with these devices.

Evgeny Ivanovich: A lot was done at the Physics and Mathematics School and NSU as well. In 1970-1974, he devised and constructed a number of original laboratory works for the physics practical course of the Physics and Mathematics School at NSU. He taught physics at the Physics and Mathematics School at NSU for 20 years — from 1974 to 1994. He created the Department of Natural Sciences of the Higher College of Informatics at NSU when it was organized and then headed it from 1992 to 1999. From 1985 to the present (40 years), I have been teaching at NSU. Since 2014, I have been the head of the Department of Continuous Media Physics at the Physics and Mathematics School of NSU. But I consider the following two to be my main achievements at NSU. Firstly, from 1975 to the present, I have been giving lectures with physical experiments at the summer physics and mathematics schools (SPMS) at NSU. 50 years every year — without a single absence. Secondly, from 1989 to the present time, I have been giving lectures on “Introduction to the Technique of Physical Experiments” at the Department of General Physics for first-year students of the Physics Department of NSU. Over 35 years, more than 5.5 thousand students have passed through me – future physicists and not only physicists. I hope that what I told, and most importantly – showed in experiments, left something in their heads and influenced their further understanding of the surrounding reality.

— How do you manage to find a balance between family life, teaching and research activities?

— Irina Georgievna: It’s easy, we don’t look for balance, we just live.

— What are you most grateful to your parents for?

— Irina Georgievna: I will not describe the fate of my parents, which is the same as the fate of millions of Siberians. The main lesson I learned in early childhood concerns interethnic relations. My native Novosibirsk is a city of four winds, a crossroads of all roads: railways, highways, nomadic roads, and river roads. The post-war 1950s were very difficult and challenging for residents. Our family lived on 1-aya Shkolnaya Street (which no longer exists), two-story timber houses were surrounded by fences, so that a small closed world was formed in each yard. And in our yard there was its own international: Russians, exiled Germans, gypsies, Mordvins, Tatars, Ukrainians — they lived very cramped, without loud quarrels or scandals. And we — children — played as a single crowd. And the main thing was not to offend anyone, so that everything was fair. I remember how in the common hallway my grandmother made an agreement with her neighbor: “Come on, you won’t do the laundry on Saturday, and I won’t wash the floor on Friday…”

Evgeny Ivanovich. Since childhood, I was surrounded by technology of all kinds. My father, a pilot and aircraft mechanic, was demobilized in the city of Leovo, then in the Moldavian SSR, where I was born in 1949. My mother was born in the village of Bely Kolodez. When I was 2 years old, the family moved to the Altai Territory, where my father was from. In Biysk, my father worked as an engineer at a boiler plant, managed the construction of facilities at a huge plant in Biysk for the production of missiles (RSM-52) for Typhoon submarines, and a brick factory. My mother worked in the laboratories of a boiler plant. We lived in Biysk in the private sector in a house that my father and his relatives built. On the street, all the children were like brothers.

— What talents do you see in your children and grandchildren, what are you proud of?

— Irina Georgievna: Our descendants are an extension of ourselves. And we always understood what exactly we needed to help them with, what to teach them, where to direct them. We have four beloved grandchildren, whom we taught a lot, helped them choose their specialization. And one of the moments that pleasantly surprised me was the following. In the second year of MIPT, where our eldest granddaughter (a gold medalist) studies, the teacher announced: “And you will study this material based on I. G. Palchikova’s publication.” “What!? That’s my grandmother!” — the granddaughter’s reaction was immediate.

— What is the difference between raising children and raising grandchildren? Is it true for you that grandchildren are loved more than children?

— Irina Georgievna: I don’t see any difference. We cared equally for our daughter and grandchildren. We didn’t lecture them, we just found a place in our hearts for all of them.

— What is the secret of a happy family life? How to work on your relationship so that it is harmonious and brings happiness to both?

— Irina Georgievna: It seems that I have already answered these questions. I can only clarify. All the secrets have been revealed many times in ancient fairy tales: “there is no happiness beyond the sea, look for it nearby.” Happiness is not eternal or continuous: “prepare the sleigh in the summer,” “if you like to ride down the hill, love to pull the sleigh.” And the main thing is that life does not end tomorrow.

We would like to thank the Palchikov family and Zhanna Yakovlevna Ermola, Deputy Dean of the NSU Physics Faculty for extracurricular and educational work, and Head of the NSU Social Department, for their help in preparing the interview.

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