
Victor Glazunov
With great sadness we write that on January 9, 2025, at the age of 66, one of the leading scientists in the field of mechanisms and machines science and robotics, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Director of the Mechanical Engineering Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Victor Glazunov has passed away.
He was a distinguished member of IFToMM Russia, permanent member of IFToMM Technical Committee for Robotics and Mechatronics, Vice-chairman of the Scientific Council on Mechanical Engineering in Russia, and member of several other research councils and editoral boards.
His contribution in type synthesis, kinematics, and dynamics of parallel mechanims is highly esteemed. He is the author of numerous papers, including papers in top-ranking journals like «Mechanism and Machine Theory».
He was the lead organizer of ROMANSY-2014 in Moscow, Russia — great event, where almost all leading researchers in the field of mechanisms and machines science and robotics had the chance to meet together.
Being the thesis advisor, he has supervised 17 PhD and 5 habilitation works.
Victor's other life side was dedicated to the theater. Despite the absence of drama education, he brilliantly played on the theater stage. Victor's phenomenal knowledge of the song genre and excellent sense of humor will forever remain in our hearts.
Victor was a good friend and a teacher for many people. We remember and mourn him.
Sincerely,
Alexey Fomin
IFToMM MO Russia
With deep sorrow and pain we received notice of the passing away of our beloved colleague and friend Professor Victor Glazunov.
Prof. Glazunov was not only a brilliant researcher in many key topics of IFTOMM and a leading scientist in Russia, distinguished by several positions such as in the Russian Academy of Sciences, he was also a wonderful, esteemed and kind supervisor and inspirator for many young researchers both in Russia and the world who are now bringing forward mechanism and machine science for the good of our society and technology. But on top of that, Prof. Glazunov was also the friendly face of IFToMM, bringing love and joy within the high scientific aims of our Federation, with his great humor, his kindness, and last but not least with his great guitar-playing, with which he embraced us all with laughter and songs during so many IFToMM World Congresses, giving us the feeling that we are all one family, across borders, across political disruptions, just to make us feel that we are friends altogether, seeking to find solutions to both our own scientific goals and those of the society as a whole, as one unity, not as competitors.
I will never forget how he always brought his guitar to each IFToMM world congress, and how he “broke the ice” during each IFToMM banquets, after the formal procedures were completed, to bring fun and the sense of community by cheering all together. And I will also never forget how after the IFToMM World Congress 2011 in Guanajuato, when we were stranded at the airport due to weather conditions, he brought us catering to overcome the waiting hours, always thinking of us, always trying to make us feel better. This was Victor, thinking always both of science and human well-being.
IFToMM will never be again what it was with Prof. Glazunov. He will always remain with us as an inspiring and binding brilliant researcher, friend and colleague. He is irreplaceable, and he is the guiding star that IFToMM needs more than ever. We will seek to follow this star for all our next steps to take. With gratefulness and appreciation.
To his family, his friends, and to all the colleagues in the IFToMM MO Russia, the Executive Council expresses, also in the name of the whole IFToMM, our deepest condolences and feelings, with immeasurable and deep appreciation for all he has done for this our treasured Federation, which has been enormous over the past decades, and will remain forever.
Andres Kecskemethy
IFToMM President