Edward Keonjian
Edward Keonjian was a prominent engineer, an early leader in the field of low-power electronics, the father of microelectronics. In 1954 Keonjian designed the world’s first solar-powered, pocket-sized radio transmitter. In 1959 Keonjian designed the first prototype of integrated circuit. In 1963 he organized the world’s first international symposium on low-power electronics. Later on Keonjian collaborated with NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong as chief of failure analysis on the Apollo 11 project.
Early life
Edward Keonjian was born in 1909 to an Armenian family in Tiflis, in the southern part of Russia, now known as the Georgian Republic. He obtained academic degrees in electrical engineering from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Institute of Electrical Engineering in 1932. When Leningrad was besieged in World War II, Edward was teaching at the Institute. Millions were perishing from cold and starvation. When he too collapsed from hunger, he was mistaken for dead and placed in a common grave. A woman passing by saw a hand sticking out of this grave. Noticing a slight movement, she realised someone was still alive and rescued him. To her astonishment it was an old friend.
Not long afterward, Edward was evacuated from Leningrad, only to be captured, along with his wife Virginia and young son Edward, Jr., by the Germans and sent to a slave labor camp. His duties at the camp included dismantling aircraft for spare parts. Liberated after World War II, he eventually emigrated to the United States of America with both his wife, (who died in 1969) and son. He arrived in 1947 penniless, knowing not one word of English, and with no friends or relatives. Nonetheless, he rose to become one of the outstanding scientists and inventors in microelectronics.
Artem Mikoyan
Artem (Artyom) Ivanovich Mikoyan was a Soviet Armenian aircraft designer, who co founded the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau along with Mikhail Gurevich.
Early life and career
Mikoyan was born in Sanahin, Armenia on 5 August 1905. His older brother, Anastas Mikoyan, would become official head of state of the Soviet Union. He completed his basic education and took a job as a machine-tool operator in Rostov, then worked in the «Dynamo» factory in Moscow before being conscripted into the military. After military service he joined the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, where he created his first plane, graduating in 1936. He worked with Polikarpovbefore being named head of a new aircraft design bureau in Moscow in December 1939. Together with Mikhail Gurevich, Mikoyan formed the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, producing a series of fighter aircraft. In March 1942, the bureau was renamed OKB MiG (Osoboye Konstruktorskoye Büro), ANPK MiG (Aviatsionnyy nauchno-proizvodstvennyy kompleks) and OKO MiG. The MiG-1 proved to be a poor start, the MiG-3 went into production but only occasionally could it fight in its intended high-level interceptor role. Further MiG-5, MiG-7 and MiG-8 Utka did not progress beyond research prototypes.
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