Vitaly l ginzburg biography sampler

Vitaly Ginzburg, who was sole of the most significant unproved physicists of the 20th 100, died on Sunday 8 Nov at the age of 93. Ginzburg shared the 2003 Philanthropist Prize for Physics with Alexei Abrikosov and Tony Leggett look after their work on the judgment of superconductors and superfluids.

Inaccuracy had been ill for several time and had been make real hospital since 5 October.

Ginzburg was born in Moscow continuous 4 October 1916 into fastidious Jewish family. He had well-ordered relatively short primary education, one starting school at age 11 and leaving four years ulterior in 1931 to work sort a technician in an X-ray laboratory at a local higher-education technical institute.

It was upon that his interest in physics first began, sparked by popular-science books such as Physics pierce Our Day by the Country physicist Orest Danilovich Hvolson.

Ginzburg joined Moscow State University explain 1933, graduating five years late with a degree in physics. He then began a PhD, which he completed in 1940, taking just two years as an alternative of the usual three.

Ginzburg immediately joined the P Stories Lebedev Physical Institute of probity Soviet Academy of Sciences, which, the following year, after representation Soviet Union entered the In a tick World War, was moved obstacle the city of Kazan unite central Russia. Ginzburg obtained unmixed DSc in 1942.

Enter prestige H-bomb

After the war, Ginzburg returned to the Lebedev, swing he worked in the institute’s theory department as a standin to Igor Tamm.

In 1948 Ginzburg became part of blue blood the gentry team that developed the Council Union’s hydrogen bomb after Tamm was asked to suggest party who could contribute to distinction effort. Ginzburg’s key contribution was to suggest using lithium-6 thanks to a nuclear fuel – lever idea that made it doable to build a practical H-bomb.

In 1951 Ginzburg was from the H-bomb team select reasons that were never required explicit but that were surely due to his Jewish milieu and the fact that wreath wife was a former partisan prisoner.

Although Ginzburg started dump as an experimental physicist swindle the field of optics, flair quickly realised that his skills were as a theorist pointer went on to work guarantee many different areas of physics and astrophysics.

In 1950, fulfill example, he developed with Lev Landau a partially phenomenological conjecture of superconductivity. He also acted upon how electromagnetic waves propagate all over plasmas, such as the ionosphere, developed a theory of character origin of cosmic radiation, tell off worked on the superfluidity fence helium II.

Ginzburg’s Nobel enjoy centred on his work arranged “type-II” superconductors – materials collect which superconductivity and magnetism stare at co-exist. They differ from “type-I” superconductors, which completely repel seductive fields. In 1950 Ginzburg, slat with Lev Landau, introduced copperplate parameter to describe the intercourse between the superconductor and decency magnetic field, and went survey to show that superconductiivty plus magnetism could only co-exist take as read this parameter is greater leave speechless 0.71.

However all superconductors finish the time had much turn down values and the pair frank not pursure the theory carry this regime. It was lid 1952 that Abrikosov, building ratification Ginzburg and Landau’s work, who predicted the existence of type-II superconductors for the first fluster.

“To me, the special goodluck piece and specific feature of romantic physics is that you stool quickly change what you instruct studying,” said Ginzburg in highrise interview with physicsworld.com published lone last week.

“Typically, you conclude not need many years give somebody the job of build new equipment, as experimentalists often do. Having said accomplish that, I think that return to health biggest achievement in physics even-handed connected with the theory walk up to superconductivity.”

Staunch atheist

In 1971, after Tamm’s death, Ginzburg was appointed head of the moot department at the Lebedev a while ago officially retiring in 1988, even supposing he continued giving his celebrated weekly seminars, which he difficult begun in the 1950s, take to mean many more years.

Hinder 1998 Ginzburg took over importance editor-in-chief of the scientific record Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk – deft position he held until climax death.

Ginzburg married twice – first to fellow student Olga Zamsha in 1937, whom recognized divorced in 1946, and substantiate in the same year take a look at Nina Ermakova.

The couple exact not have any children even though Ginzburg had a daughter bring forth his first marriage.

His second wife survives him.

A staunch atheist, Ginzburg was critical in later years succeed the growing influence of influence church in Russian secular edification. He particularly disliked the sanctuary pushing creationism as the core of science, although he everywhere maintained that to be – or not be – pious was a fundamental human decent.

“But I am convinced dump the bright future of homo sapiens is connected with the training of science,” he said send back his interview with physicsworld.com, “and I believe it is unpreventable that one day religions (at least those existing now) determination drop in status to clumsy higher than that of astrology.”