Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. His visit to Akademgorodok in 1970 was commemorated with an honorary monument laid near the building of the Physics Mathematics School on 22 August,2016.
Neil Armstrong was invited to Akademgorodok for two days in May 1970. Serving as his hosts were Russian cosmonauts Konstantin P. Feoktistov and Georgy T. Beregovoy together with the first Chair of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail M. Lavrentyev. The party was treated to fish soup ukha on one of the islands in the artificial Ob Sea. They also visited the exhibition Moon Rock in the House of Scientists and planted some Siberian pines near the Physics Mathematics School.
The idea of commemorating the visit was proposed by the school authorities in view of celebrating a jubilee of Cosmonautics Day and the 55th anniversary of the summer school organized by the Physics Mathematics School.
The red-and-white marble stone chosen for the monument came fr om Novosibirsk geologists who had graduated from the school and the university. Vladimir Zhirakovsky delivered it from Pletnevskoye marble deposit in Novosibirsk region. The stone features a sign plate with the information on planting the pines.
The monument was opened by the Rector of Novosibirsk State University Mikhail Fedoruk, the Principal of the Physics Mathematics School Nikolay Yavorsky and the students of the summer school hosted by the Physics Mathematics School.
Note: As spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, Neil Armstrong gained the distinction of being the first man to land a craft on the moon and first to step on its surface on 20 June 1969. In May 1970, Armstrong traveled to the Soviet Union to present a talk at the 13th annual conference of the International Committee on Space Research; after arriving in Leningrad from Poland, he traveled to Moscow and Novosibirsk.
The annual summer school organized at Akademgorodok is a kind of boarding school wh ere high-school students from Novosibirsk and other Russian regions are supervised by university teachers in their studies and have a time to relax in a friendly atmosphere of like-minded peers. Students usually come from different Siberian regions, the Far East and Kazakhstan. Having studied for three weeks, they pass final tests and interviews, on completing which the most talented students can enroll the Physics Mathematics School, aka Specialized Educational Scientific Center of Novosibirsk State University.
