Abram Alikhanov

Abram Alikhanov
Alikhanov in 1948
Born
Abraham Alikhanian

4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1904
Died8 December 1970(1970-12-08) (aged 66)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Alma materFirst Polytechnic Institute
Scientific career
FieldsParticle and nuclear physics
InstitutionsPhysical-Technical Institute (1927–1941)
Laboratory no. 2 (1943–1945)
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (1945–1968)

Abram Isaakovich Alikhanov (ahl-eek-ahn-off;[1] Russian: Абрам Исаакович Алиханов, Alikhanian; 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1904 – 8 December 1970) was a Soviet experimental physicist[2] of Armenian origin who specialized in particle and nuclear physics. He was one of the Soviet Union's leading physicists.

Before joining the Soviet atomic bomb project, Alikhanov studied X-rays and cosmic rays. Between 1945 and 1968, he directed the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow, which was named after him in 2004. He led the development of both the first research and the first industrial heavy water reactors in the Soviet Union. They were commissioned in 1949 and 1951, respectively. He was also a pioneer in Soviet accelerator technology. In 1934 he and Igor Kurchatov created a "baby cyclotron", the first "cyclotron" operating outside of Berkeley, California. He was the driving force behind the construction of the 70 GeV synchrotron in Serpukhov (1967), the largest in the world at the time.

His brother, Artem Alikhanian, was based in Soviet Armenia and led the Yerevan Physics Institute for many years.

  1. ^ Rhodes, Richard (1995). Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Simon & Schuster. p. 671. ISBN 0-684-80400-X.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference UspekhiObit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).