Leonid Maximovich Brekhovskikh • 1917–2005

Leonid Brekhovskikh, a pioneer in wave propagation and scattering, academician, codiscoverer of the deep sound channel, and author of the classic text, Waves in Layered Media, died in Moscow on January 15, 2005 at the age of 87. He was active in his research, regularly working at his office at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanography up to his very last days. Brekhovskikh was born just south of the Arctic Circle near Arkhangel’sk, Russia on the White Sea, on May 6, 1917 to a humble family. He studied physics at the State University in Perm near the Ural Mountains, where he received his undergraduate degree in 1939. His talents recognized, he continued his postgraduate work at the prestigious Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow, where he received his degree of Candidate of Science in 1941 for his dissertation on x-ray diffraction in crystals. In 1947, he was awarded his Doctor of...