Lev Artsimovich

Lev Andreyevich Artsimovich (Russian: Лев Андреевич Арцимович, February 25, 1909 – March 1, 1973), also transliterated Arzimowitsch, was a Soviet physicist known for his contributions to the Tokamak— a device that produces controlled thermonuclear fusion power.<ref name="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tietz">Template:Cite web</ref>

Prior to conceiving the idea on nuclear fusion, Artsimovich participated in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and was a recipient of many former Soviet honors and awards.<ref name="elementy" /><ref name="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tietz"/>

Biography

Artsimovich was born on 25 February 1909 in Moscow in the Russian Empire.<ref name="Routledge, Cochran">Template:Cite book</ref> His family had Polish nobility roots;Template:Rp nonetheless, he was described as Russian by his autobiographer in 1985.Template:Rp<ref name="Nauka Publishers, Kadomtsev, 1985">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005">Template:Cite book</ref> His grandfather, a professor, was exiled to Siberia after the Polish uprising against Tsarist Russia in 1863 and married a Russian woman, later settling in Smolensk.Template:Rp<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> His father was educated at Lviv University; his mother was a pianist trained in Switzerland.Template:Rp<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> During the civil war, the family was very poor. The parents were forced to send their son to an orphanage, from where he ran away and was homeless for a while. After the end of the civil war, the family's situation gradually improved. In 1923, Soviet authorities moved the Artsimovich family (due to suspicion of Anti-bolshevist activity) to Minsk, where he found employment in the railroad industry and started training towards becoming a railroad engineer.<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> After his father found employment at Belarus State University, Artsimovich was able to attend the physics program at Belarus State University, and graduated with a specialist degree in physics in 1928–29.Template:Rp<ref name="Nauka Publishers, Kadomtsev, 1985"/><ref name="Routledge, Cochran" /> After moving to Moscow, he found employment in Artem Alikhanian's laboratory, and joined the staff at the Ioffe Institute in 1930.Template:Rp<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/>

Initially, he worked on problems relating to nuclear physics and unsuccessfully defended his thesis for a Candidate of Sciences degree in 1937 and in 1939 at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute, receiving only a written endorsement from the Ioffe Institute.Template:Rp<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> During his lifetime, Artsimovich was recommended by many leading Soviet physicists to be conferred a Doktor Nauk (a Russian PhD), but the recommendations were later dismissed.Template:Rp<ref name="Nauka Publishers, Kadomtsev, 1985"/>

In 1945, Artsimovich joined the Soviet program of nuclear weapons, working on an electromagnetic method of isotope separation of uranium at Laboratory No. 2 along with Isaak Pomeranchuk.<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> He was given Russian espionage files from Soviet agencies on the Manhattan Project's electromagnetic method.Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> But the uranium enrichment under Artsimovich failed when it proved too costly since the electricity required for this work could not be produced by the Soviet power grid at that time.Template:Rp<ref name="University of Pittsburgh Press, Josephson, 2005"/> Despite being removed by Beria, Artsimovich continued work on gas discharges with support from Kurchatov at his Laboratory No. 2. After 1949, his work focused on the field of nuclear fusion by producing lithium-6 for the RDS-6s device.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1951 to his death in 1973, Artsimovich was the head of the fusion power program in the former Soviet Union and became known as "the father of the Tokamak",<ref name=newsci>Template:Cite book</ref> a special concept for a fusion reactor. Once Artsimovich was asked when the first thermonuclear reactor would start its work. He replied: "When mankind needs it, maybe a short time before that."<ref name=elementy>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1953, he became an academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and then a member of its Presidium in 1957.<ref name="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tietz" /> From 1963 to 1973, he was vice-chairman of the Russian chapter of the Pugwash Committee and chairman of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists.<ref name="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tietz" /> In 1966, he visited the United States to deliver a lecture on fusion and Tokamak technology at MIT, and was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref name=AAAS>Template:Cite web</ref> He has been a foreign member of German Academy of Sciences at Berlin since 1969,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a member of the Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Swedish Academies of Sciences. On 1 March 1973, Artsimovich died due to cardiac arrest in Moscow. The crater Artsimovich on the Moon is named after him.<ref name="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tietz" />

Honours and awards

• 1946 – Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union
• 1953 – Academician of the USSR
• 1953 – Stalin Prize, first class
• 1957 – Academician-secretary of the Department of General Physics and Astronomy, USSR Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the USSR
• 1958 – Lenin Prize
• 1965 – Honorary Member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
• 1966 – Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1968 – Foreign Member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences
• 1969 – Honorary Member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences
• 1969 – Hero of Socialist Labour
• 1970 – Honorary Citizen of Texas (USA)
• 1971 – USSR State Prize
• 1972 – Honorary Doctor of the University of Warsaw
• Four Orders of Lenin
• Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour

See also

• Russian Alsos

External links

• Artsimovich's photo – from the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Artsimovich Memorial Lecture-OFES