George Gamow

George Gamow
Born	Georgiy Antonovich Gamov (1904-03-04)March 4, 1904 (O.S. February 20, 1904) Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died	August 19, 1968(1968-08-19) (aged 64) Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Citizenship	Soviet Union United States
Alma mater	Leningrad State University
Known for	Gamow factor Gamow–Teller transition Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper Alpha decay Big Bang cGh physics Liquid drop model Quantum tunnelling Urca process One Two Three ... Infinity
Spouse(s)	Rho (m. 1931, div. 1956) Barbara (m. 1958)
Children	1 (Igor Gamow)
Awards	Kalinga Prize (1956)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Physicist, science writer
Institutions	University of Göttingen Niels Bohr Institute Cavendish Laboratory George Washington University University of California, Berkeley University of Colorado Boulder
Doctoral advisor	Alexander Friedmann
Doctoral students	Ralph Asher Alpher Vera Rubin
Signature

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Physical cosmology
Big Bang · Universe Age of the universe Chronology of the universe
Early universe Inflation · Nucleosynthesis Backgrounds Gravitational wave (GWB) Microwave (CMB) · Neutrino (CNB)
Expansion · Future Hubble's law · Redshift Expansion of the universe FLRW metric · Friedmann equations Inhomogeneous cosmology Future of an expanding universe Ultimate fate of the universe
Components · Structure Components Lambda-CDM model Dark energy · Dark matter Structure Shape of the universe Galaxy filament · Galaxy formation Large quasar group Large-scale structure Reionization · Structure formation
Experiments Black Hole Initiative (BHI) BOOMERanG Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Dark Energy Survey Planck space observatory Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ("2dF") Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
Scientists Aaronson Alfvén Alpher Copernicus de Sitter Dicke Ehlers Einstein Ellis Friedmann Galileo Gamow Guth Hawking Hubble Huygens Kepler Lemaître Mather Newton Penrose Penzias Rubin Schmidt Smoot Suntzeff Sunyaev Tolman Wilson Zeldovich List of cosmologists
Subject history Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation History of the Big Bang theory Timeline of cosmological theories
Category Astronomy portal
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George Gamow (sometimes Gammoff; born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov; Russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов; 4 March 1904 – 19 August 1968) was a Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Georges Lemaître's Big Bang theory. Gamow discovered a theoretical explanation of alpha decay by quantum tunneling, invented the liquid drop model and the first mathematical model of the atomic nucleus, worked on radioactive decay, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis, Big Bang nucleosynthesis (which he collectively called nucleocosmogenesis), and molecular genetics.

In his middle and late career, Gamow directed much of his attention to teaching and wrote popular books on science, including One Two Three... Infinity and the Mr Tompkins series of books (1939–1967). Some of his books remain in print more than a half-century after their original publication.