Kapitsa P.L., (1841-1984), physicist

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
KAPITSA Peter Leonidovich (1894, Kronstadt - 1984), physicist, Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), Hero of Socialist Labour (1945, 1974). Graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute (1918). One of the founders of the Physics and Technology Institute (1919). In 1921-34, sent on assignment to Great Britain. Lived in Leningrad in 1934-35. Lived in Moscow after 1935, organising, heading, and serving as director (1935-46 and 1955-85) of the Institute for Problems in Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (today named after Kapitsa). Published works in the field of nuclear physics, mechanics of superstrong magnetic field, cryogenics, high-power electronics, and mechanics of high-temperature plasma. Among his honours are the Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943) and the Nobel Prize (1978). A bust to Kapitsa by sculptor A.M. Portyanko was unveiled in Kronstadt in 1979. There are memorial plaques on the buildings of the Polytechnic University and School № 425 in Kronstadt (where Kapitsa studied in 1907-12).

References: Петр Леонидович Капица: Воспоминания. Письма. Документы. М., 1994; Чепарухин В. В. Петр Леонидович Капица: Орбиты жизни, 1894-1984 // Генералы духа. СПб., 2001. Кн. 1. С. 483-500.

V. V. Cheparukhin. Kapitsa Peter Leonidovich
Portyanko Alexey Mikhailovich
Пётр Леонидович Капица: Воспоминания. Письма. Документы. М., 1994
Чепарухин В. В. Петр Леонидович Капица: Орбиты жизни, 1894-1984 // Генералы духа. СПб., 2001 Russian Academy of Sciences
Polytechnical University