Scientific director of uranium isotope separation for the Soviet atomic bomb
“A scientist is not a job title or a place of work — you don't become one by walking into a lab and starting to think. Being a scientist is a constant, sometimes agonizing, sometimes beautiful state.” — at a Komsomol prize ceremony, shortly before his death, 1984.
Soviet experimental physicist. In 1933, with M. M. Noskov, he discovered the photomagnetic effect in semiconductors (the Kikoin-Noskov effect) and pioneered measurements of the Hall effect in liquid metals and gyromagnetic ratios in superconductors. In 1943 Kurchatov recruited him to Laboratory No. 2, where he became scientific director of uranium isotope separation; he and Kurchatov were the only two from Lab No. 2 on the Technical Council of the Special Committee. He served as deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute (1960–1984), co-founded the magazine Kvant with Kolmogorov, and co-authored the standard Soviet physics textbook with his brother Abram. He kept a facsimile of the Dead Sea Scrolls in his office and read Hebrew.
Career Timeline
- 1930Researcher, Leningrad Physical-Technical Institute (LFTI)
- 1933Co-discovered the photomagnetic effect in semiconductors with M. M. Noskov
- 1935Head of Electrical Phenomena Dept., Ural Physical-Technical Institute; moved to Sverdlovsk
- 1936Doktor Nauk in physics and mathematics
- 1937–1944Professor and Chair of General Physics, Ural Polytechnic Institute
- 1942Stalin Prize, 3rd class, for heavy-current measuring instruments
- 1943Joined Laboratory No. 2; scientific director of uranium isotope separation; Technical Council of Special Committee
- 1950Department head, Institute of Atomic Energy (IAE)
- 1953Elected Academician, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1960–1984Deputy director, Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy
- 1969Co-founded Kvant magazine with Kolmogorov; first editor-in-chief