504
Afterword
difficult and important for me at that time to properly search and select the areas
in medicine where I could maximally realize the unique features of optical holography, holographic interferometry and microscopy, speckle-optics and laser physics.
I was lucky: in 1975–1977 years, the fate brought me with Belarusian scientists,
endlessly in love with their profession. We can say today about these people that
they are outstanding scientists who created in medicine, each in his own direction,
the whole epoch. The topic of the report “Holography in Medicine and Biology”
so much interested and intrigued them that I was invited to present it first at the
Institute of Photobiology of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, where I had a
long conversation with Aleksander Arkadievich Shlyk, Sergei Vasilyevich Konev,
Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Chernitskiy and Vladimir Mikhailovich Mazhul. After I
presented my report at the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of
the BSSR, where I met Ivan Andreevich Bulygin and Galina Vasilievna Abramchik,
which also left a pleasant mark in my life. Sometime later, my report was made
at the Institute of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR, and so much
interested Director of this Institute Nikolai Nikolaevich Alexandrov that he offered
me a job at his institute. But fate had prepared me another meeting at the Institute of
Neurology, Neurosurgery and Physiotherapy of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR,
where I also presented my report “Holography in Medicine and Biology” together
with Ignat Petrovich Antonov, Iosif Abramovich Sklut and Georgy Konstantinovich
Nedzved. The prospect of the study, which Ignatiy Petrovich opened to me, finally
defined my choice for many years. As a result, the main object of my research became
neuromuscular system and later on cardiovascular system, the study of which was
conducted jointly with the Institute of Cardiology of the Ministry of Health of the
BSSR directed by George Ivanovitch Sidorenko. In order to prepare young professionals for future scientific work, I gave lectures—special course “Holographic Interferometry and Microscopy” on the Physics Faculty (Department of Spectroscopy and
Quantum Electronics) from 1976 to 1983. During those years, there were many skeptics among the majority of physicists who assured me that the issue related to the
study of a biological object was unpromising. However, as a physicist, I did not
see then and do not see now the difference, whether I explore the vibration modes
of blades of compressors and turbines engines, elasticity, fatigue, residual stress,
aging of materials, flow and thermal gradients, plasma, laser resonators, whether I
study vibrational modes of blades of compressors and engine turbines, elasticity,
fatigues, residual stress, aging of materials, flows and thermal gradients, plasma,
laser resonators, create laser systems or study cells, organs, tissues, processes of the
contraction of a heart muscle, deformations inside and outside of the skull, stress
concentrators in the jaw, the elasticity of the vessels, the speed of red blood cells,
neural networks, pulsation of the brain, etc. Moreover, today I can say for sure that
a medical and biological object is more complex for study than a physical one, its
state and properties are multivariate and multi-functional.
I gratefully and warmly recall the period of my study at High School in Leningrad
from 1965 to 1975, especially the years of study in the graduate school. After finishing
work on my thesis devoted to the studies using resonant processes in gaseous media,
which are based on the phenomenon of anomalous dispersion, Yuri Isaevich Ostrovsky said: “Remember, Leonid, that you were my graduate student, I was a graduate
student of Nikolai Petrovich Penkin, and Nicholai Petrovich Penkin was a graduate
Afterword
difficult and important for me at that time to properly search and select the areas
in medicine where I could maximally realize the unique features of optical holography, holographic interferometry and microscopy, speckle-optics and laser physics.
I was lucky: in 1975–1977 years, the fate brought me with Belarusian scientists,
endlessly in love with their profession. We can say today about these people that
they are outstanding scientists who created in medicine, each in his own direction,
the whole epoch. The topic of the report “Holography in Medicine and Biology”
so much interested and intrigued them that I was invited to present it first at the
Institute of Photobiology of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, where I had a
long conversation with Aleksander Arkadievich Shlyk, Sergei Vasilyevich Konev,
Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Chernitskiy and Vladimir Mikhailovich Mazhul. After I
presented my report at the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of
the BSSR, where I met Ivan Andreevich Bulygin and Galina Vasilievna Abramchik,
which also left a pleasant mark in my life. Sometime later, my report was made
at the Institute of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR, and so much
interested Director of this Institute Nikolai Nikolaevich Alexandrov that he offered
me a job at his institute. But fate had prepared me another meeting at the Institute of
Neurology, Neurosurgery and Physiotherapy of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR,
where I also presented my report “Holography in Medicine and Biology” together
with Ignat Petrovich Antonov, Iosif Abramovich Sklut and Georgy Konstantinovich
Nedzved. The prospect of the study, which Ignatiy Petrovich opened to me, finally
defined my choice for many years. As a result, the main object of my research became
neuromuscular system and later on cardiovascular system, the study of which was
conducted jointly with the Institute of Cardiology of the Ministry of Health of the
BSSR directed by George Ivanovitch Sidorenko. In order to prepare young professionals for future scientific work, I gave lectures—special course “Holographic Interferometry and Microscopy” on the Physics Faculty (Department of Spectroscopy and
Quantum Electronics) from 1976 to 1983. During those years, there were many skeptics among the majority of physicists who assured me that the issue related to the
study of a biological object was unpromising. However, as a physicist, I did not
see then and do not see now the difference, whether I explore the vibration modes
of blades of compressors and turbines engines, elasticity, fatigue, residual stress,
aging of materials, flow and thermal gradients, plasma, laser resonators, whether I
study vibrational modes of blades of compressors and engine turbines, elasticity,
fatigues, residual stress, aging of materials, flows and thermal gradients, plasma,
laser resonators, create laser systems or study cells, organs, tissues, processes of the
contraction of a heart muscle, deformations inside and outside of the skull, stress
concentrators in the jaw, the elasticity of the vessels, the speed of red blood cells,
neural networks, pulsation of the brain, etc. Moreover, today I can say for sure that
a medical and biological object is more complex for study than a physical one, its
state and properties are multivariate and multi-functional.
I gratefully and warmly recall the period of my study at High School in Leningrad
from 1965 to 1975, especially the years of study in the graduate school. After finishing
work on my thesis devoted to the studies using resonant processes in gaseous media,
which are based on the phenomenon of anomalous dispersion, Yuri Isaevich Ostrovsky said: “Remember, Leonid, that you were my graduate student, I was a graduate
student of Nikolai Petrovich Penkin, and Nicholai Petrovich Penkin was a graduate