ANNIVERSARY OF AKHMET MAZGAROVICH MAZGAROV

January 1, 2013 marked the 70th anniversary of Akhmet Mazgarovich Mazgarov Director of the Volga Scientific Research Institute of Hydrocarbon Raw Materials, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Vice-President of the Islamic Academy of Sciences (IAS). After graduating from Kazan Institute of Chemical Engineering in 1964, I. A. Mazgarov worked at the Kuibyshev Synthetic Alcohol Plant and made his way up from technician to deputy shop chief. He entered the post-graduate program at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering in 1968 and defended his Candidate Dissertation in 1970. In 1972, young scientist Akhmet Mazgarov founded the Laboratory for the Desulfurization of Hydrocarbon Raw Materials at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Hydrocarbon Raw Materials (VNIIUS) in Kazan. Akhmet Mazgarovich defended his Doctoral Dissertation in 1983 and was appointed Director of the VNIIUS in 1985. A. M. Mazgarov became a Professor and a Distinguished Chemist of the Republic of Tatarstan in 1990, and in 1991 he was chosen as an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan. He became an Academician of the IAS in 2002. A. M. Mazgarov has served as President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan since 2006 and has been Vice-President of the IAS since 2008. Academician A. M. Mazgarov is a world-renowned scientist in the fields of the organic chemistry of sulfur, homogeneous catalysis, oil and gas processing, and the chemistry and engineering of processes for the removal of sulfur compounds from oil, gas, and petroleum products. Technologies developed by Dr. Mazgarov have been used in the construction of more than 40 industrial facilities in Russia and abroad (Iran, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Lithuania) for removing sulfur compounds from hydrocarbon raw materials and waste water. He invented the world’s first DMS-1 process, designed for the demercaptanization of crude oil. This technology was introduced in 1995 by the company Chevron at the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan. During the period 2006-2008 A. M. Mazgarov supervised the reconstruction of two DMS-1 lines and their changeover to DMS-4 technology, which provides for the thorough removal of C1-C2 mercaptans from oil and doubles productivity. Four licenses for the production of an odorant and processes for removing sulfur compounds from gas condensate, gasoline, propane-butane fractions, and waste water were sold by the Iranian Oil Company.