P.A. Zhilin was born on February 8th, 1942, in the town of Velikiy Ustyug in Vologda region, where his family found themselves during the war. P.A. Zhilin was born on February 8th, 1942, in the town of Velikiy Ustyug in Vologda region, where his family found themselves during the war. Pavel Zhilin spent his childhood in the towns of Volkhov and Podporozhie, where his father, Andrey Pavlovich Zhilin, worked. Andrey P. Zhilin was a power engineering specialist, and at that time the chief engineer at the coordinated hydroelectric system of Svir river. Zoya Alexeevna Zhilina, mother of Pavel A. Zhilin, was bringing up the sons and kept the house. In 1956 Andrey P. Zhilin was assigned to the position of the chief power engineering specialist at the Soviet Union Trust “HydroElectroMontage”, and the family moved to Leningrad. The elder brother, Sergey Andreevich Zhilin, followed in his father's footsteps, became an engineer and now participates in creating high-voltage electric apparatus. In 1959 P.A. Zhilin left the secondary school and entered Leningrad Polytechnical Institute. Yet at school Pavel Zhilin met his future wife, Nina Alexandrovna, who was his faithful friend and helpmate all his life long. While studying at the institute P.A. Zhilin became keen on table tennis and was a captain of the student and later institute team for many years. Not once did the team win different student and sport collectives championships. P.A. Zhilin got a qualification of the candidate master of sports (the highest qualification in this sport discipline at that time).

In the period of 1959-1965 P.A. Zhilin studied at Leningrad Polytechnical Institute in the Department of “Mechanics and Control Processes” at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics. Later on his daughter, Olga Zhilina, graduated from the same Department. After graduation, P.A. Zhilin got a qualification of engineer-physicist in “Dynamics and Strength of Machines” speciality, and from 1965 to 1967 worked as an engineer at water turbine strength department in the Central Boiler Turbine Institute. In 1967 he accepted a position of Assistant Professor at the Department of “Mechanics and Control Processes”, later he worked there as a senior researcher, an Associate Professor and a Full Professor. The founder of the Chair was Anatoliy Isaakovich Lurie, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences, world-famous scientist. P.A. Zhilin became the closest disciple of A.I. Lurie and spent many hours working together with him. Scientific ideology of P.A. Zhilin was developing to a great extent under the influence of A.I. Lurie. P.A. Zhilin got his PhD degree in Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1968 (the topic of his thesis was “The theory of ribbed shells”), Professor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences since 1984 (the topic of his Professorial thesis was “The theory of simple shells and its applications”), Professor at the Department of “Mechanics and Control Processes” since 1989. In 1974-1975 P.A. Zhilin worked as a visiting researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. While working in the Department of “Mechanics and Control Processes”, P.A. Zhilin delivered lectures on analytical mechanics, theory of oscillations, theory of shells, tensor analysis, continuum mechanics. In 1988 he was invited in the Yarmuk University (Jordan) to set a course of continuum mechanics at the Faculty of Physics. At the same time P.A. Zhilin actively carried out scientific work in the field of theory of plates and shells, nonlinear rod theory, theory of elasticity, continuum mechanics. He gained three certificates of invention in the area of vibroinsulation and hydroacoustics, he was awarded with the Inventor of the USSR insignia.

Since 1989 P.A. Zhilin was the Head of Department of Theoretical Mechanics. In the period of his direction five of his colleagues defended their Professorial theses, for the four of them P.A. Zhilin was a scientific advisor. While working in the Department of Theoretical Mechanics P.A. Zhilin stationed and read original courses on tensor algebra, rational mechanics, and the rod theory. During this period of time Pavel Zhilin worked hard in the field of investigating and developing foundations of mechanics. His investigations on spinor motions in mechanics and physics, phase transitions and phenomena of inelasticity, electrodynamics from the positions of rational mechanics, logical foundations of mechanics relate to this period. Since 1994 Pavel Zhilin was the Head of “Dynamics of Mechanical Systems” laboratory at the Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1999 he was a member of the scientific committee of the Annual International Summer School - Conference “Advanced Problems in Mechanics”, held by the Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering.

Pavel Andreevich Zhilin died on 4th of December, 2005. His track has become a part of history of science.
It is difficult to overestimate his influence on his disciples, colleagues, and all who were lucky to know him personally. He had an extraordinary ability to inspire interest to science, to give you a fresh unexpected look at the world around. P.A. Zhilin was a man of heart, a responsive, kind person, who found time for everyone, always giving his full support and benefit of his wise advice. One was amazed by his remarkable human qualities, his absolute scientific and human honesty. Being his disciples we are grateful to life for the chance to have known such a wonderful person and an outstanding scientist, who became for us an embodiment of spirituality.