Igor Kurchatov
| Igor Kurchatov | |
|---|---|
|
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| Born | 12 January 1903 Simsky Zavod, Ufa Governorate, Russian Empire now the town of Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia |
| Died | 7 February 1960 (aged 57) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Soviet Union |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
| Institutions | Physico-Technical Institute |
| Alma mater |
Crimea State University Physico-Technical Institute Ioffe Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Abram Fedorovich Ioffe |
| Known for | Soviet atomic bomb project |
| Influenced | Georgy Flyorov, Konstantin Petrzhak |
| Notable awards | Stalin Prize (1954) |
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (Russian: И́горь Васи́льевич Курча́тов; 12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" and later, "the father of the Soviet Nuclear Missile" for his directorial role in the development of the Soviet nuclear program, in a clandestine program during World War II formed in the wake of the USSR's discovery of the Western Allied efforts to develop nuclear weapons. After nine years of covert development, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon, codenamed First Lightning at the Semipalatinsk Test Range in 1949. In 1954 he was awarded the USSR State Prize in physics.
From 1940 onward, Kurchatov worked on and contributed to the advancement of the nuclear weapons program, and later advocated for the peaceful development of nuclear technology. In 1950, Kurchatov contributed in the development of the Hydrogen bomb with Andrei Sakharov who originated this development as Sakharov's Third Idea. Other projects completed under Kurchatov included the installation and development of Soviet Union's first particle accelerator, the Cyclotron, inauguration and established of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the world's first nuclear power plant in Obninsk, and the completion and launching of the Lenin, the first nuclear-power vessel, under his leadership, in 1959.
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