Vladimir G. Tissen (1952-2011)

It is with deepest sadness that we announce the passing of Dr Vladimir G. Tissen who died on 16 October 2011.

Vladimir Tissen was born on May 14, 1952. He graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University in 1975. Since then, he worked in Chernogolovka, a scientific centre near Moscow, at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was an excellent experimentalist and his forte was constructing and running equipment for measurements under extreme conditions.

Vladimir Tissen was lucky to begin his scientific carrier as a PhD student under the guidance of an outstanding expert in magnetism, Prof. B. K. Ponomarev. Working together, they constructed an original technique for measurements in pulsed magnetic fields to 400 kOe at temperatures to 700 K. Their high-field high-temperature studies on the magnetization of nickel metal solved the problem of the dual nature of magnetic carriers in 3d-metals, combining spatial localization of the magnetic moments and the itinerant behaviour of the magnetic 3d-electrons obeying the Fermi statistics.

Having got a PhD in 1980, Vladimir Tissen changed to developing an extremely sensitive method for measuring the magnetic susceptibility in diamond anvil cells at ultrahigh pressures and low temperatures. The resulting unique non-contact technique appeared very timely and was well suited for studying the effect of pressure on the superconducting properties of many high-temperature superconductors, MgB2, FeSe and other interesting objects including pure elements, such as titanium, zirconium, hafnium, lanthanum, etc.

Vladimir Tissen was great in disseminating his experimental methods and skills and he established a large number of scientific collaborations. Particularly, his high-pressure measuring units proved to be helpful in superconducting studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) and Washington University (USA). The collaboration with Washington University was especially successful and resulted in a discovery of Tc = 19.5 K at 115 GPa for yttrium, the third highest value of superconducting temperature ever observed for an elemental superconductor.

He will be missed by all of us.

Prof. E. G. Ponyatovsky
Prof. V. E. Antonov
Dr. I. O. Bashkin
Dr. V. F. Degtyareva