Lev Davidovich Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau , 1908-68, Soviet physicist, b. Baku, Azerbaijan. A child prodigy in mathematics, he entered Baku Univ. at 14; at 21 he received a doctorate from the Univ. of Leningrad. In 1934 he worked with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1937 he became head of the theoretical department of the USSR Academy of Sciences. A key figure in Soviet space technology, he helped make the first Soviet atomic bomb. For his contributions to low-temperature physics he was voted the Fritz London Award at the 1960 International Congress of Physics, held in Toronto. For his pioneering studies on gases, especially his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below -455.73°F (-270.96°C), he received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Landau, Lev Davidovich (1908–68) Soviet physicist. In 1927, he proposed a concept for energy called the density matrix, later used extensively in quantum mechanics. He originated the theory that underlies the superfluid behaviour of liquid helium. In 1962, he received the Nobel Prize in physics for his research into condensed matter, especially helium.