Boris Katorgin

Boris Ivanovich Katorgin, born on 13 October 1934, is a Russian rocket engine designer whose working life was spent at NPO Energomash, the manufacturer of liquid propellant engines for Soviet and Russian launch vehicles. He graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1958, joined the company that same year, became a Doctor of Technology in 1983, and served as its general director and chief designer from 1991 to 2005. He is known chiefly for cryogenic liquid propellant engines. He led the company during development of the RD-180, which was exported to the United States to power the Atlas III and Atlas V boosters, and he was also involved in the earlier RD-170, an engine roughly twice as powerful. He became a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003 and shared the 2012 Global Energy Prize.