Sergei Rytov

Sergei Mikhailovich Rytov (; 3 July 1908 – 22 October 1996) was a Soviet physicist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Rytov contributed to the fields of statistical radiophysics, In 1955, he introduced an analytical effective medium model for one-dimensional stratified media, which is widely used in the analysis of gratings, composites and metamaterials.

Rytov's work would later be summarized in a series of books Principles of Radiophysics, co-authored with Yurii A. Kravtsov and Valeryan I. Tatarsky on radiophysics (Russian term for the theory of linear and nonlinear wave phenomena), where he discussed a series of topics related on fluctuation phenomena in electronic systems random fields and random propagation waves.

Rytov theory would be simplified by Dirk Polder and Michael van Hove in 1971 to describe thermal radiation between closely spaced bodies. This led to the development of near-field radiative heat transfer theory, to which Rytov also contributed later.

Rytov was well known for his pedagogic skills. Mandeshltam Prize.

Books