Ivan Tolstoy

Knocktower

Knockvennie

Castle Douglas. DG7 3PA

Scotland

+447734702436

i.tolstoy.tolstoy@btinternet.com

Personal Data

Date of birth            30 March 1923

Place of birth           Baden-Baden, Germany

Date of death          18 February 2023

Lived and educated in France 1924-1945 (apart from nine months' asylum in Switzerland in 1944). Emigrated to USA 1945. Acquired US citizenship 1948. Three children, all US born: Alexandra (1947), Eline (1965), Maya (1967). Living in Knockvennie, Castle Douglas, Scotland since 1975. (cf.also American Men and Women in Science) 

Education

Ph.D.    Geophysics, Columbia University, N.Y., (1950)

M.A.     Geology, Columbia University, N.Y., (1948)

Licence ès Sciences, Sorbonne University, Paris (1945) 

Mathematiques Speciales 1944

Honours

Fellow of ASA  (Acoustical Society of America), 1958

ASA Medal (Pioneers of Underwater Acoustics), 1990

Honorary member, Science Centre, Eastern Branch Akademya Nauk, Vladivostok, 1989

AAAS life member.

Grants

ARPA , (1964-1968) $ 600,000 per annum, atmospheric long period acoustic and gravity wave detection --arrays and theory.  

ONR (1979-1990) approx. $40,000 per annum on personal contracts for theoretical work in acoustics and wave theory.

Professional background

1946-51 Research scientist, Lamont Geological Observatory, Columbia University. 

1951-53 Senior Research Engineer, Stanolind Oil. 

1953-1964 Senior Research Scientist, Hudson Laboratories, Columbia University. 

1965-67 Associate Director at Hudson Labs and Professor of Ocean Engineering at Columbia University. 

1968-73 Professor of Geophysics, Florida State University. 

1973-77 Visiting Professor of Applied Mathematics, Leeds University. 

1978-79 Distinguished Professor of Acoustics, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. 

1979-90 ONR Grantee, based at domicile in Knockvennie, Scotland.

Research topics

1947-51,  Seafloor geology and topography, seismology. 

1951-67, Ocean and atmospheric acoustics, theory and experiment.

1967-80,  Acoustic and seismic wave propagation theory.

1980-90, Wave propagation and scatter theory. Pro-bono consulting work on geological disposal of nuclear waste.

1990-present, wave theory, gravitational waves in General Relativity, writing on history and philosophy of science

Invited lectures

Keynote address to All Soviet Conference on Acoustics (Moscow, 1968)

Lecturer at International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi" on Frontiers in Acoustics  (Varenna, Italy, 1984)

Guest of Akademya Nauk at Far Eastern branch, lecturing in Vladivostok, 1989.