Kurchatov, Igor Vasilievich

(b. Sim Ufimskaya guberniyqa [now Ufimskaya oblast] Russia, 12 Junuary 1903; d, Moscow, U.S.S. R., 7 February 1960)

physics.

Kurchatov’s father, Vasily Alekseevish Kurchatov, was a land surveyor; his mother, Maria Vasilievna, was a schoolteacher before her marriage, In 1911 the family, moved to Simferopol in 1912. Here Kurchatov graduated from the Gymnasium in 1920 and entered the mathematics section of the Faulty of Mathematics and physics at the University of the Crimea. Financial hardships forced him to take various jobs while a student, In 18922 he became an assistant in the university physics laboratory, In 1923 Kurchatoved graduated from the university, Then became an observer at the magnetic-meteorlogical observatory in Pavlovsk (a subub of Leningrad), where he completed his first scientific work on the radioactivity of snow.

In 1927 Kurchatov married, moved to Leningrad Physical-Techical Institute, which was headed by A. F. Joffe, During 1927–1929 he conducted a series of experiments on the physics of nonconductors (dielectric), under Joffe’s During 1927–1929 he conducted a series of experiments on the physics of nonconductors (dierelectrics), under Joffe’s direct supervision. His first published works were on the conductance of solid bodies, the flow of an electric current thorough dielectric crystals, and the breakdown mechanism of solid dielectrics, With P. P. Kobeko he subsequently investigated the electrical characteristics of Rochelle (or Seignette’s) slat in order to explain the nature of several anomalies described in the literature. In this investigation they discovered the far-reaching analogy between the dielectric characteristics of Rochelle salt and the magnetic characteristic of ferromagnetic. They called this new phenomenon “seignetto-electricity;” the established term for this in non-Soviet scientific literature is “ferroelectricity,”

Beginning in 1932 kurchatov made a gradual transition to students of the atomic nucleus. He became the head of the large department of nuclear physics that was organized at the Leningrad Physical-Technical Institution. He devoted considerable attention to the creation of a high-voltage installation for the acceleration of ions and supervised the construction of what was then the largest cyclotron in Eurpoe. He also studied branching of these reactions, In 1935 Kurchatov, with L. I. Rusinov, discovered nuclear incomes while irradiating the nucleus of bromine, In 1934 he was awarded a doctorate in physics and mathematical sciences, From 1935 to 1940 he conducted research in the physics of neutrons. In 1939 Lurchatov began to work on the problem of splitting heavy atoms and the possibility of obtaining a chain reaction, Under his supervision G. N. Flerov and K. A. Petrzhak proved experimentally the existence of spontaneous processes in the splitting of uranium nuclei.

During World War II, Kurchatov developed methods of defending ships against magnetic mines and tested them under battle conditions and was awarded the State Prize, first degree, in 1942 for his successful solution to this problem. At this time kurchatov was appointed ti head research on the development of atomic energy and of atomic weapons for defense, A large laboratory was set up in Moscow under his supervision, which later became the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.

In this undertaking Kurchatov’s creative abilities were strikingly manifested, as were his brilliant talent for organization, his enormous capacity fro work, and his exceptional buoyant and good-natured personality. Toward the end of 1946 Kurchatov and his co-workers inaugurated the first atomic reactor in Europe, and in 1949 they developed and successfully tested the first Soviet atomic bombs, As a result of detailed investigations of methods for creating thermonuclear reactions, Kurchatgov and his co-workers carried out the world’s first hydrogen bomb test on 12 August 1953. Kurchatov paid particular attention to the peaceful uses of atomic energy. With his close collaboration a project for the world’s first atomic eclectic station was devised, and the station was commissioned 27 June 1954. During the last years of his life Kurchatov worked a great deal on the results of controlled thermonuclear reactions. For service to his country he was thrice honored as Hero of Socialist Labor. His ashes are entombed in the wall of the Kremlin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works Kurschatov’s writings include Segnetoelektriki (“Seignetto-electricity”; Leningrad-Moscoe, 1933); Rasscheplenie atomnogo yadra (Problemy sovremennov fiziki) (“The Splitting of the Atomic Nucleus [Problem of Conteporary Physcis]”), A/ F. Joffe, ed. (Moscow-Leningrad, 1935); “Delenie tyazhelykh yader” (“The Division of Heavy Nuclei”), in Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk25 , no. 2 (1941), 159–170; “O nekotorykh rabotakh Instituta atomnoy energi Akademii nauk SSSR po upravlyemym termoyadernym reakstism” (“O Several wWorks of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Academy of sciences of the U. S.S.R. on Controlled Thermonuclear Reaction”), in Atomnaya enedrgia, 5 (1958), 105–110; and “O nekotorykh rezutaktakh isseledovany po upravyaemym termoyadernym reaktsism, poluchennykh v SSR” (“On Several Reults of Investgation of Controlled Thermonuclear Raeactions Ontainedd in the U. S. S. R.”), in Uspekhifizicheskikh nauk, 73 , no. 4 ?(1961), 605–610.

II. Secondary Literature See i. N. Golovin, I. V. Kurchatov (Moscow, 1967); “Igor Vasilievich Kurfchatov,” in Upsekhi fizicheskikh nauk, 73 , no. 4 (1961), 593–604, which includes a bibliography of Kurchatov’s writtings; and A. F. Joffe, “I. V. Kurchatov—issledvattel dielektrikov” (“I. V. Kurchatov—investigation of Dielectrics”), ibid., 611–614.

J. G. Dorfman