He Brought New Meanings and New Solutions

The name of Vassily Vassilievich Nalimov is connected not only with the development of scientometrics, but also with the development of several other scientific branches such as metrology of quantitative chemical analysis, chemical cybernetics, mathematical theory of experiment, philosophy of science, probabilistic theory of meanings among others. All these different scientific subjects were united on the basis of a probabilistic approach as opposed to a deterministic one. The paper covers two decades (1961–1981) of Nalimov's life and describes the “cybernetic” period of his activity in the Scientific Council for Cybernetics in the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a chairman of two section — “Chemical Cybernetics” and “Mathematical Theory of Experiment” The author was the closest colleague of Nalimov in the Council. The paper touches on the peculiarities of scientific life of that time in soviet Russia, as well as the difficulties of dealing with an attempt to reorganize the higher education system. Nalimov paid special attention to this problem. The mathematical theory of experiment and scientometrics, both of which later became independent scientific branches, came from the section of “Chemical Cybernetics”. Nalimov was a gifted pedagogue and a brilliant speaker, with an ability to enthrall the audience. Some vivid episodes related to his talks are presented in the paper. The informal scientific community, united by ideas and world outlook, was known in our country as “Nalimov's invisible college”. Such a community could be treated as a pioneer in the history of Russian science.