Author:

Name & Surname: Nesterov A. G.
Company: Ural Federal University named after First President of Russia B. N. Eltsin (Ekaterinburg, Russia)
Work Position: Head of a Chair
Scientific Degree: Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences
Contacts: e-mail: agn1154@yandex.ru

The article gives the life history of the founder of the Uralmekhanobr Institute in Ekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk), Professor Mikhail F. Ortin (1880–1958). After he graduated from the Institute of Technology in Saint-Petersburg, he gained significant hands-on experience both in mines and research institutions in Russia, USA, Germany and Sweden. In the Urals, M. F. Ortin founded the Mineral Dressing School at the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute as well as the Mineral Dressing Chair and a research laboratory at the chair. In 1929 on the basis of this laboratory, the Uralmekhanobr Research and Design Institute was established, and M. F. Ortin became its first director. Continuing his work at the Mining Institute and Uralmekhanobr Institute, M. F. Ortin had carried out a series of momentous studies in the field of ore beneficiation, which resulted in a treatise that became the primary course manual on ore dressing.

The article is based on historical data from the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region. Foundation 101 (Ural Society of Fans of Natural Sciences).