Mikhail Kim

Mikhail Vasilyevich Kim (Russian: Михаил Васильевич Ким; 8 August 1907 – 4 September 1970) was a Soviet hydraulic engineer and geophysicist. He was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1966 for his work on permafrost engineering, particularly pioneering the use of deep piling to elevate a building's foundation, keeping it from warming the ground below.^[1]

Mikhail Vasilyevich Kim
Михаил Васильевич Ким
Born	(1907-08-08)August 8, 1907
Died	September 4, 1970(1970-09-04) (aged 63) Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Soviet Union
Awards	Lenin Prize
Scientific career
Fields	hydraulic engineering

Biography

Kim was born into a Korean family in the village of Kedrovaya Pad, Primorsky Region in the Russian Far East. From 1923 he lived in Vladivostok and from 1927 in Leningrad.^[2] He graduated from the workers' faculty at the Far Eastern Federal University (1927) and the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1932).^[3]

Kim was arrested on October 5, 1935, and accused of founding a counter-revolutionary group with ties with anti-party groups in Korea and Manchuria, etc. He was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment, which he served at Norillag in Norilsk as a hydraulic engineer and senior foreman.^[3]

He was released on March 1, 1939, and became head of the permafrost station and the head of the survey department of the design office of the Norilsk Combine.^[3]

In 1966, he was awarded the Lenin Prize for his participation in the creation of the theory of pile foundations: he proved that houses on piles with a ventilated underground, if properly operated, will stand firmly.^[3]

He died on September 4, 1970, in Krasnoyarsk during a meeting on construction issues in Siberia and the Far East.^[3]