Konstantin Petrzhak
| Konstantin Petrzhak | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | Константин Антонович Петржак |
| Born |
September 4, 1907 Łuków, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (now Łuków, Poland, or in Dombrovo, now Kaliningrad oblast, Russia) |
| Died | October 10, 1998 (aged 91) Russia |
| Residence | |
| Nationality | Pole |
| Fields | Physics (Nuclear) |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | Saint Petersburg State University |
| Doctoral advisor | Igor Kurchatov |
| Other academic advisors | Vitaly Khlopin |
| Known for |
Discovery of spontaneous fission
Soviet nuclear program |
| Notable awards |  |
Konstantin Petrzhak (alternatively Pietrzak;Russian: Константи́н Анто́нович Петржак; IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ pʲɛdʐak]; 1907–1998) was a Soviet–Russian nuclear physicist and university professor of Polish origin. He discovered spontaneous fission of uranium with Georgy Flyorov in 1940; in addition, he also aided in Soviet Union's atomic bomb project .
Konstantin Petrzhak was born on 4 September 1907 in Łuków (Congress Poland, Russian Empire, now in Poland; another source also states he was born in Dombrovo, now Kaliningrad oblast. When Konstantin was 12 years old, he started working as a painter at a glass-making factory in Malaya Vishera (Russia). In 1928, he went to Saint-Petersburg to study at the rabfak of Saint Petersburg State University (then called Leningrad State University). In 1931, he joined a radiology group there. Konstantin Petrzhak completed his diploma under the supervision of Igor Kurchatov and graduated from Saint Petersburg State University in November 1936.
In 1934 he began work at Khlopin Radium Institute in Saint Petersburg (First Radium Institute), headed by Igor Kurchatov. Vitaly Khlopin and Kurchatov were his scientific supervisors. He worked there for the rest of his life. Konstantin Petrzhak wrote his Candidate of Sciences thesis, "study of thorium and samarium radioactivity". under Kurchatov's guidance. Petrzhak presented this paper at the Ioffe Institute.
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