Mikhail Stepanovich Vysotsky (10.02.1928, v. Semezhevo, Kopyl district, Minsk region – 25.02.2013), scientist and designer in the field of mechanical engineering, public figure. Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (1989; corresponding member since 1984), Doctor of Engineering Sciences (1976), Professor (1978). Hero of Belarus (2006). Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the BSSR (1975), Honored Worker of Industry of the USSR (1991).
Under his leadership and with his personal participation, the first Belarusian cars with the Minsk brand were created. More than half a century heads in the development of progressive automotive technology in the country. In the mid-1950s, trailer designs and semi-trailers developed with his personal participation, with a number of unique innovations (torsion bar suspension, hermetic brakes and vehicles for them) were used as chassis for mounting mobile power plants and control systems to launch the first artificial Earth satellite. During this time, under his leadership, six generations of automotive vehicles with a lifting capacity from 8 to 240 tons (more than 300 models), most of which are mass-produced by automobile factories, the modular design of the MAZ-2000 train, patented in five leading countries and unparalleled in the global automotive industry, have been created. One of the initiators of the organization in the republic of its own large-scale production of the first models of buses of the Minsk Automobile Plant. Scientific research in the field of the theory and design of mobile machines. The methodology for the synthesis of optimal mass-geometric parameters, optimization of power, high-speed properties and fuel efficiency of heavy-haul main road trains based on simulation of their movement, taking into account the characteristics of typical road conditions, the concept of creation and methodology of researching promising mobile vehicles based on a systematic approach.
Author of over 450 scientific papers, incl. 19 monographs, 145 copyright certificates and patents.
State Prize of the USSR in 1970 for creating the design of a unified family of high-performance heavy trucks, road trains and dump trucks. State Prize of the BSSR in 1986 for the development and implementation of a flexible automated system for accelerated testing of manufactured machines.
Awarded with the Order of Lenin (1974), the Red Banner of Labor (1968), the Fatherland of the III degree (1998), the Fatherland of the II degree (2004).