Gleb Vassielievich Wataghin (November 3, 1899 in Birzula,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– October 10, 1986 in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) was a Russian-Italian theoretical and experimental

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and a great scientific leader who gave a great impulse to the teaching and research on physics in two continents: in the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the best ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

; and in the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

, Turin, Italy. Wataghin was hired in 1934 to found with other European physicists the Department of Physics of the recently founded University of São Paulo. There, he was the tutor of a group of young physicists, such as

César Lattes Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes (11 July 1924 – 8 March 2005), also known as César Lattes, was a Brazilian experimental physicist, one of the discoverers of the pion, a composite subatomic particle made of a quark and an antiquark. Life Latte ...

Oscar Sala Oscar Sala (born March 26, 1922, in Milan, Italy, d. January 2, 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil), Italian-Brazilian nuclear physicist and important scientific leader, Emeritus Professor of the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo. Early life ...

Mário Schenberg Mário Schenberg (var. ''Mário Schönberg'', ''Mario Schonberg'', ''Mário Schoenberg''; July 2, 1914 – November 10, 1990) was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer. Early life Schenberg was born in Recife, Brazil ...

, Roberto Salmeron,

Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos Marcelo Damy de Sousa Santos (July 14, 1914 – November 29, 2009) was a Brazilian physicist. Considered as one of the most important educators and researchers in physics in Brazil, along with Cesar Lattes, José Leite Lopes and Mario Schen ...

and

Jayme Tiomno Jayme Tiomno (April 16, 1920 in Rio de Janeiro – January 12, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian experimental and theoretical physicist with interests in particle physics and general relativity. He was member of the Brazilian Academy of ...

. The Institute of Physics of the

State University of Campinas The State University of Campinas ( pt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unicamp is consistently ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin ...

, in

Campinas Campinas (, ''Plains'' or ''Meadows'') is a Brazilian municipality in São Paulo State, part of the country's Southeast Region. According to the 2020 estimate, the city's population is 1,213,792, making it the fourteenth most populous Brazilian ...

, Brazil, was named in his honour, as well as a prize in Physics. In 1955, he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the University of São Paulo. He was awarded the

Feltrinelli Prize The Feltrinelli Prize (from the Italian "Premio Feltrinelli", also known as "International Feltrinelli Prize" or "Antonio Feltrinelli Prize") is an award for achievement in the arts, music, literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and physical and ...

in 1951 and was national member of the

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

, from 1960.

Selected bibliography

* *

Notes

External links

* Predazzi, Ernesto
Gleb Wataghin

Brazilian Physical Society The Brazilian Physical Society'' pt, Sociedade Brasileira de Física, SBF) is a non-profit organization of physicists and physics teachers, affiliated with the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science ( Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da ...

(in Portuguese) * Salmeron, Roberto A
Gleb Wataghin
Revista Estudos Avançados. Vol. 16, Jan./Apr. 2002. (In Portuguese) 1899 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Italian physicists Expatriate academics in Brazil People associated with the State University of Campinas People from Odesa Oblast Russian emigrants to Italy University of São Paulo faculty University of Turin alumni University of Turin faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century Brazilian physicists {{physicist-stub