Edgar A. Silinsh

Edgar Imant Silinsh (, , Edgar Aleksandrovich Silinsh; 21 March 1927 – 26 May 1998) was a Soviet and Latvian scientist in the field of semiconductor physics and philosophy of science, academician of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Biography Edgar Silinsh was born the 4th child in a family of prosperous farmer Aleksandrs Siliņš (1875—1934) on the "Veclapsas" farmstead in Līgatne municipality of Riga district. During his school years, he was mostly interested in literature and history rather than in physical sciences. Due to the start of World War II and the death of his mother in 1943, E. Silinsh was forced to discontinue his education; nevertheless, in 1946 he took secondary school exams and enrolled at the Faculty of Chemistry of the State University of Latvia (SUL). The choice for natural sciences was rooted in Edgar's awareness of humanities being ideologically constrained in the Soviet Union. Yet he was forced to cease his studies even in the field of chemistry during the Stalinist repressions of 1949, because of class-based mistreatment. After that, E. Silinsh worked as a laborant for 14 years, and for last 12 of these he was employed at the Central Laboratory of the Riga Plant of Electrical Machine Building . At this institution, E. Silinsh could for the first time perform actual scientific research, mostly in the field of atomic spectroscopy. In 1958, his two messages were included in the X All-Union Spectroscopy Conference in Lvov. In total, Edgar Silinsh published 26 scientific and technical papers in the field of atomic and molecular spectroscopy during his years at RER, as well as 16 technical and technological publications of other kinds. (71 Scopus citations) ushered in the collaboration with professor of the New York University Martin Pope and professor of Japanese National Institute of Natural Sciences , later also with professor of the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň, Stanislav Nešpůrek. year later E. Silinsh defended his Doctor of Science thesis (equivalent to Western habilitation) on the topic, and in 1980 the improved and updated monograph was published by Springer, now available for Western readers. The last one is the most cited work of Edgar Silinsh in his whole life (218 citations as of June 2017), and Silinsh himself was once credited as the most cited Latvian author.

In the early 1980s, Edgar Silinsh was interested particularly in photogeneration mechanisms in organic semiconductors. In 1985, E. Silinsh published the molecular polaron model describing the lattice polarization effect on charge carriers; together with coworkers A. Jurģis and G. Šlihta developed the modified Sano—Mozumder model to describe the transfer of charge-carriers in the molecular semiconductor. Edgar Silinsh was a member of American Physical Society, the Rotary club and some other international organizations; since 1992 — full member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS). In the same year, the Prize in the field of Physics devoted to him was established by the LAS.

Views and works in philosophy of science Edgar Silinsh had much interest in Oriental philosophy (daoism, zen-buddhism), as well as in the traditional Japanese culture. He also revered the works of Niels Bohr in the field of philosophy of science, as well as (in the philosophical context) works of Dutch graphic artist Maurits Escher. In the year following the death of E. Silinsh, Jumava publishing house put in print his collection of essays on the matter, named "The Quest for the Great Truths" .

List of monographs О. Нейланд, Я. Страдынь, Э. Силиньш и др. Строение и таутомерные превращения β–дикарбонильных соединений. Зинатне: Рига, 1977, 444.с. Э. Силиньш. Электронные состояния органических молекулярных кристаллов. Зинатне: Рига, 1978, 344.с. E. A. Silinsh. Organic Molecular Crystals. Their Electronic States. Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, 1980, 389 p. В. Андреев, M. Kурик, С. Нешпурек, Э. Силиньш, И. Чaпек и др. (под общей редакцией Э. Силиньша). Электронные процессы в органических молекулярных кристаллах: Явление поляризации и локализации. Зинатне: Рига, 1988, 329.с. Э. Силиньш, M. Kурик, И. Чaпек. Электронные процессы в органических молекулярных кристаллах: Перенос, захват, спиновые эффекты. Зинатне: Рига, 1992, 363.с. E. Siliņš, V. Čapek. Organic Molecular Crystals: Interaction, Localization, and Transport Phenomena. AIP Press, New York, 1994, 402 p. Lielo patiesību meklējumi. Esejas. Jumava: Rīga, 1999, 511 lpp. (Latvian)

Awards Grand Medal of the Latvian Academy of Sciences "for establishing a new field and a school of physics of organic solid state, as well as for organizing efforts for the science of Latvia" (1997); M. Keldysh Prize by Latvian SSR Academy of Science (1984); An Edgar Silinsh Prize in Physics was established after his death in 1998 by the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Quotes Revealing the truth is the end in itself of the science, as well as the justification of its existence. Hence a scientist must never lie. Lies shatter confidence in the statements of another scientist. Whereas without this confidence, collective collaboration in science is impossible. (1971)