Talk:Dmitri Z. Garbuzov
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Well, I am not sure if or how this page has become a candidate for deletion. Dr. Garbuzov, who died in August 2006 at age 65, was an extremely highly honored Russian-American scientist. In particular, the 1972 Lenin Prize was an extremely high honor one notch below a Nobel Prize. (Certainly Wikipedia's audience would not be served by limiting biographical articles describing only those who had won Nobel Prizes among physicists.)
I do not believe the page to be, in any way, a "Promotional article." The genesis of this page is an obituary that was created in cooperation between six individuals who worked over several weeks.
jabeles
[edit] complete rewrite notification
I am not entirely sure, but I noticed that the "candidate for deletion" notification was removed at some point following my previous note on this Talk Page.
Still feel confident that this biographical Wikipedia page adds value to uses of Wikipedia and should not be in any way a candidate for deletion. The interest of this article is on multiple levels ranging from those who wish to understand the history of electronic semiconductor physics and practical devices, those who wish to understand the history of the esteemed Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, the development of high performance light sources and related technology during the 20th century, the evolution of Russo-American competition and competitiveness in a key area of technology as it evolves from the deep freeze years of the 1960s across the historical frontier of "perestroika" through to the post-cold-war alignment and commonality between Russian and American science, and others.
Make no mistake about it, the history of Dmitri Garbuzov's life and his career are highly significant and much more could be written about the subject than what has been contributed to this point on the main Wikipedia page. It is not typical for readers and researchers to be able to access meaningful biographical information pertaining to individuals, even those who made world-changing discoveries and inventions such as Garbuzov, within the walls of industry and coincidentally withing the walls of Soviet-era research institutions.
The history of technology is not easily accessible in part because of the hurdle for laypersons of understanding the technology itself as a pre-requisite, and in part because (in the opinion of this contributor) of the nature of technology in that it is proliferated as a product, and not as an intellectual or philosophical, contribution to culture. Only a relatively smaller group of cognoscenti are aware of the tremendous intellectual accomplishments made by scientists working in technologies such as semiconductor laser diodes (which owes much to Garbuzov).
Too, very little has been written or is available regarding the tradition of Garbuzov's home institution, the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, which itself has been a world-leading institution in the field -- discussed here -- of semiconductor physics and technology. The style of research conducted at Ioffe is qualitatively different and distinct from that practiced in western institutions. As is well known, digital computers became much more widely accessible in the west much earlier than in the Soviet Union. In accordance with this historical fact, researchers at the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute turned this limitation into an asset. They distinguished themselves by highly intuitive understandings and visualizations of physical systems which came across in latter-day presentations in the west as contacts began to proliferate particularly as Soviet emigrés become more numerous beginning in the late 1970s and thereafter.
With regard to the Wikipedia page on Dmitri Garbuzov possibly requiring a complete rewrite, I am at a loss to understand this comment as well which (as of early April 2007) places those who access the page on some kind of notice. While certainly I would be happy to see a re-write of this or any other archival article which adds to the quality of the communication, accuracy of the underlying material, uniformity of its presentation, or other universally palatable desiderata, I have a feeling that the quality of the page as it stands does indeed serve these and related needs of the online community which Wikipedia seeks to serve rather well. I.e. while it might benefit as would any article on Wikipedia from a rewrite, it is not of a nature currently which suggests that a high priority ought be placed on a complete revision. Such effort could best be placed on adding additional articles on other topics not currently served by Wikipedia.
Jabeles 03:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Wikify sections and rewrite
Today I extensively edited the page to re-organize the sections and generally improve the article. I then removed the "wikify" and "rewrite" notices that had been (as far as I could tell anonymously) to the article. If I violated any policy thereby, please excuse the error but I believe I did what was requested by an anonymous editor. If necessary we can go through all the details of what is considered (if anything) still needed for improvement of the article.
Jabeles 08:02, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
