Nikolai Nikolaevich Sirota (02.11.1913, St. Petersburg – 06.01.2006), physicist. Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (1956), Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences (1951), Professor (1952). Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the BSSR (1968). Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (2004). Member of the Great Patriotic War.
Research on the physics of metals, semiconductors, dielectrics and physico-chemical analysis. He developed the theory of phase transformations, the theory of the formation of metastable phases in single and multicomponent systems and the polymorphism of simple compounds. Investigated the mechanism and kinetics of crystallization, studied the effect of magnetic and electric fields on the kinetics of crystallization and phase transitions. He investigated chemical bonding in solids, electron density distribution in crystals, two- and three-component ferrite systems, thermodynamic properties of a large number of semiconductor compounds. He developed methods and determined the background spectra of crystals based on the scattering of cold neutrons, constructed magnetic and phase diagrams according to neutron-diffraction analysis. Developed thermodynamics of excited states. He carried out studies of many practically important materials (superconducting, superhard, magnetic, semiconductor) under the influence of low and high temperatures, intense magnetic fields and ultrahigh pressures, and radiation exposure. Proposed an original method of obtaining blocks of cubic boron nitride.
Author of more than 700 scientific papers, incl. 2 monographs, 60 inventions.
Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1950).
Awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1967, 1973), medals.