Co-discoverer of spontaneous fission, a pillar of the Soviet atomic project
After they removed the neutron source, their ionization chamber kept firing. To rule out cosmic rays, they hauled the apparatus 50 meters underground into Moscow's Dinamo metro station, where the signal persisted: uranium fissions all by itself.
Soviet nuclear physicist. In 1940, together with Georgy Flyorov, he discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium-235, a finding that established the scientific foundation for the Soviet atomic bomb project. Drafted into the Red Army in 1941 and recalled to Kazan in 1942, he developed the associated-particle method for measuring neutron source yields and created express techniques for plutonium detection under Kurchatov. In 1947 he founded the neutron physics and nuclear fission laboratory at the Khlopin Radium Institute, which he led for nearly four decades, and in 1949 he established the nuclear physics department at the Lensovet Technological Institute, training generations of Soviet nuclear engineers.
Career Timeline
- 1919–1928Porcelain and glass painter, Malaya Vishera glass factory
- 1931–1936Leningrad State University, Physics Faculty; diploma supervised by Igor Kurchatov
- 1936–1941Postgraduate researcher, Khlopin Radium Institute (RIAN), under Kurchatov and Khlopin
- 1940Co-discovered spontaneous fission of uranium with Flyorov (USSR State Discovery No. 33)
- 1941–1942Served in Red Army, lieutenant; recalled to Kazan for the atomic bomb project
- 1947–1986Founded and headed the Neutron Physics and Nuclear Fission Laboratory, RIAN
- 1949–1984Founded and chaired the Nuclear Physics Department, Lensovet Technological Institute
- 1948Awarded Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences