About
Lev Landau, Soviet physicist, was born on January 22, 1908, in Baku (Russian Empire, now Azerbaijan) into a Jewish family. A child prodigy, he entered Baku University at 14 and graduated from Leningrad State University in 1927. After studies abroad with Niels Bohr, he headed the Theoretical Department at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in Kharkov (1932-1937), then at the Institute for Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow (1937-1968). Arrested in 1938 during the purges, he was released thanks to Pyotr Kapitsa's intervention. He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of superfluidity of liquid helium.
* 1908-01-22 — † 1968-04-01
Major works
- Course of Theoretical Physics (1938-1979)scientific treatise
Key milestones
- 1938Arrested by the NKVD during the Great Purge, released after one year thanks to Pyotr Kapitsa's intervention.
- 1962Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of superfluidity of liquid helium.
- 1962Severely injured in a car accident on January 7, he never fully recovers.
Themes
Theoretical physicsSuperfluidityQuantum mechanicsCondensed matterScientific education
Sources: beta.nobelprize.org · beta.nobelprize.org · britannica.com
