Vladimir Fortov is one of Russia's leading physicists, a senior member of the Academy of Sciences, and a world expert on the topic of matter under extreme conditions. He has carried out many pioneering experiments, among others experimentally confirming the "plasma phase transitions" long predicted by eminent scientists such as Eugene Wigner, Lev Landau and Klaus von Klitzing. He was also in charge of experiments carried out aboard the MIR and ISS space stations.