1912–1992
○ Natural causes
A nuclear theorist who made reactor design possible
Gurevich's team predicted and, in 1969 experiments, confirmed a new phenomenon: the spin of a positive muon in a muonium atom precesses at two close frequencies in a weak magnetic field, producing a characteristic beat pattern.
Isai Gurevich was a Soviet theoretical physicist who worked on fission and neutron physics. In 1943, amid wartime shortages of experimental resources, he and Isaak Pomeranchuk developed a theory of heterogeneous assemblies that placed uranium in a lattice within graphite moderator. Their calculations showed how this arrangement could reduce resonance absorption in uranium and supplied a theoretical foundation for the F-1 reactor built by Kurchatov's team.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1912Born
- 1930년대Began research in theoretical physics
- 1943At Laboratory No. 2, developed the theory of heterogeneous uranium-graphite assemblies with Pomeranchuk
- 1946The theory was realized experimentally with the start-up of the F-1 reactor
- 1950년대–1980년대Continued research as a Soviet theoretical physicist
- 1992Died
Related historical events
From Riga and the Radium Institute to the atomic project
Gurevich was born in Riga on 13 July 1912 and graduated from Leningrad University in 1934; from 1932 he worked as a laboratory assistant at the State Optical Institute. In 1934 he joined the Leningrad State Radium Institute, which became the Radium Institute of the Academy of Sciences in 1938, and from 1944 he served there as scientific consultant. From 1946 he led a sector at Laboratory No. 2, continuing research on reactor physics, and in the same year became professor of nuclear physics at the Moscow Mechanical Institute (MIFI); his lectures were known for addressing the most current problems of nuclear physics. In 1949 he received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Stalin Prize, second degree, for work on the theoretical problems of atomic reactors. From 1952 he moved into nuclear and elementary-particle physics, high-energy physics and weak interactions, and in 1968 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the nuclear physics division (experimental nuclear physics). Among his best-known publications is the 1965 monograph Low-Energy Neutron Physics, written with L. V. Tarasov, and a 416-page textbook, Neutron Physics, appeared in 1997. He died on 6 December 1992 and is buried in Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow.