Lev Andreevich
Artsimovich
1909-1973
Lev Andreevich Artsimovich was a Soviet physicist, the head of the Department of the I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (AS USSR), the Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1924 he finished high school in Minsk and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Minsk University, graduated from it in 1928. In 1929 he defended his thesis on the topic “On the theory of characteristic X-ray spectra” at Minsk University. In 1930 he joined the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. Here together with A.I. Alikhanyan he performed a number of works on the physics of X-rays, in particular experimentally studied their reflection from thin layers of metal at very small angles and developed a theory of this process. In 1935 together with I.V. Kurchatov he proved the capture of a neutron by a proton. During the Great Patriotic War, Artsimovich was evacuated with the Institute in Kazan, engaged in the development of electron-optical night vision systems using the infrared spectrum and other defence tasks. From 1944 to 1957 he worked in the Laboratory of Measuring Instruments of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1955 – the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Academy of Sciences, now named after I.V.Kurchatov), he was a head of the sector and head of the department. In the first post–war years, he developed a method of electromagnetic isotope separation, an active participant in the work on the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb and, to an even greater extent, on the creation of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb. In 1957-1973 he was the Head of the Department of the I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. He supervised the work on the Tokamak thermonuclear installations, the results of which were the production of a physical thermonuclear reaction in a stable quasi-stationary plasma. He completed a cycle of work on obtaining and studying high-temperature plasma at Tokamak installations. He was one of the world’s outstanding scientists in the field of thermonuclear physics. He was the founder of the scientific school in the field of thermonuclear controlled fusion. For outstanding achievements in the development of Soviet science and in connection with the sixtieth anniversary of his birth by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 25, 1969, Lev Andreevich Artsimovich was awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal. He was awarded the Silver Medal “For Services to Science and Humanity” of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He lived in the hero city of Moscow. He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals. He was laureate of the Lenin Prize, the Stalin Prize of the first degree, the USSR State Prize.
Address: Moscow, Akademika Kurchatov pl., 1, p. 73
