Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University) abbreviated MIPT or informally Phystech (alternative transliterations: MFTI, Fizteh; МФТИ, Физтех) is a leading Russian university, originally established in the Soviet Union. It prepares specialists in theoretical and applied physics, applied mathematics, and related disciplines. MIPT is famous in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but is less known abroad. This is largely due to the specifics of the MIPT educational process well known as "Phystech System".
The following is a summary of the key principles of the Phystech System, as outlined by Kapitsa in his 1946 letter arguing for the founding of MIPT:
- rigorous selection of gifted and creative young individuals
- involving leading scientists in student education, in close contact with them in their creative environment
- an individualized approach to encourage the cultivation of students' creative drive, and to avoid overloading them with unnecessary subjects and rote learning common in other schools and necessitated by mass education
- conducting their education in an atmosphere of research and creative engineering, using the best existing laboratories in the country
In its implementation, the Phystech System combines highly competitive admissions, extensive fundamental education in mathematics, as well as theoretical and experimental physics in the undergraduate years, and immersion in research work at leading research institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences starting as early as the second or third year. University rankings such as The Times Higher Education Supplement are based primarily on publications and citations. With its emphasis on practical research in the educational process, MIPT "outsources" education and research beyond the first two or three years to institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences. MIPT's own faculty is relatively small, and many of its distinguished lecturers are visiting professors from those institutions. Student research is typically performed outside of MIPT, and research papers do not identify the authors as MIPT students. This effectively hides MIPT from the academic radar, an effect not unwelcome during the Cold War era when leading scientists and engineers of the Soviet arms and space programs studied there.
The word "phystech," without the capital P, is also used in Russian to refer to Phystech students and graduates.
The Department of Aeromechanics and Flight Engineering, the DAFE (Russian: Факультет аэромеханики и летательной техники, ФАЛТ, FALT) is one of the departments of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. It is located in Zhukovsky, a suburb south-east of Moscow. The department was established in 1965 for preparing young specialists able to solve complex problems in the aircraft industry under the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TSAGI) also located in Zhukovsky town. The founders of this faculty were academicians S.Khristianovich, A.Dorodnitsin, O.Belotserkovsky, ministers of education and aircraft industry V.Stoletov and P.Dementyev, chief designer V.Myasishchev. At the base of the DAFE there is Zhukovsky's school, one of the oldest Russian scientific schools.
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