Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff (also spelled Bakhmetieff or Bakhmetev) (1880- July 21, 1951) was an engineer, businessman, professor of Civil Engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and the only ambassador of the Russian Provisional Government

Russian Provisional Government

The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...

 to the United States. He was unrelated to his predecessor as ambassador, George Bakhmeteff. His wife Helen died in 1921. His position as ambassador was recognized by the US government until his resignation in June 1922, when he established the Lion Match Company with other Russian immigrants. He introduced the concept of specific energy in hydraulics in his thesis and book Hydraulics of Open Channels. In 1947 he received the Norman Medal

Norman Medal

The Norman Medal is the highest honor granted by the American Society of Civil Engineers for a technical paper that "makes a definitive contribution to engineering science"....

 of the American Society of Civil Engineers

American Society of Civil Engineers

The American Society of Civil Engineers is a professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. It is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. ASCE's vision is to have engineers positioned as global leaders who strive toward...

.

The Russian archives and a professorship of Russian at Columbia are named after him, as is a Harvard research fellowship in hydraulics.

Works

• Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmateff, Hydraulics of Open Channels (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1932)
• Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmateff, The Mechanics of Turbulent Flow (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1941)

External links

• Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff
• Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff biography at Columbia University
• New York Times obituary