Ksenia Aleksandrovna Razumova (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Ксения Александровна Разумова''; also transliterated Xenia Razumova; born 23 January 1931) is a Russian

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 ...

. She graduated from the Physical Faculty of Moscow University in 1955 and took a position at the then called

Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy The Kurchatov Institute (russian: Национальный исследовательский центр «Курчатовский Институт», 'National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute) is Russia's leading research and developmen ...

in Moscow, then USSR. She defended her Ph.D. in 1966, was Candidate in Physical and Mathematical sciences in 1967, and became Doctor of Sciences in 1984. She is laboratory head at the Institute of Nuclear Fusion, Russian Research Centre Kurchatov Institute. Since the beginning she is actively involved

plasma physics Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...

in research on the

tokamak A tokamak (; russian: токамáк; otk, 𐱃𐰸𐰢𐰴, Toḳamaḳ) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being ...

line of

Magnetic confinement fusion Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to generate thermonuclear fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of fusion energy research, along with ...

Selected work

Razumova is best known for her early experimental research in the tokamak line. Inspired by the theoretical work of

Vitaly Shafranov Vitaly Dmitrievich Shafranov (russian: Виталий Дмитриевич Шафранов; December 1, 1929 – June 9, 2014) was a Russian theoretical physicist and Academician who worked with plasma physics and thermonuclear fusion research. ...

, she developed a macroscopically stable plasma in the tokamak TM-2 in 1963., opening the way to a world-wide shift of the

nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...

programme towards the

line. Experiments carried out by her at this tokamak, along with results obtained on the T-3 and T-4 tokamaks, convinced the scientific community that the pessimistic forecasts for the future of magnetic confinement based on the Bohm formula were unfounded. In 1971, she was awarded the USSR State Prize for creating and investigating high temperature thermonuclear plasmas in tokamaks. Her work contributed to the very fast development of the tokamak line in the 1970s. She was a pioneer on the study of MHD instabilities and disruptions in tokamaks. In 1962, she and her colleagues were the first to observe the disruption instability in a tokamak. She was the first to implement a method to measure the plasma energy based on the diamagnetic effect, still in use these days. With V. Alikaev, she demonstrated plasma heating by Electron Cyclotron in the TM-3 tokamak. Her team also investigated

runaway electrons The term runaway electrons (RE) is used to denote electrons that undergo free fall acceleration into the realm of relativistic particles. REs may be classified as thermal (lower energy) or relativistic. The study of runaway electrons is thought to ...

in tokamaks. Since the mid 1980s her interest has shifted to investigation on plasma transport, in particular to the study of profile consistency and plasma self-organization. She is as active now as she was in her younger years, and is always eager to discuss new ideas and experiments.

Honours and awards

* 1971 -

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

for the "Realisation and investigation of high-temperature thermonuclear plasmas in Tokamaks" * 1974 - I.V.Kurchatov Prize * 1983 -

for her contributions to "The development of high power gyrotrons and their applications in thermonuclear research" * 1984 - I.V.Kurchatov Prize * 1992 - L.A.Artsimovich Prize for her contributions to "The physics of heating and current drive by electron cyclotron waves" * 2006 - Honorable Silver Badge of the

Global Energy Prize The Global Energy Prize is an international award in the field of energy industry which is given for ''"outstanding scientific research and scientific-technical developments in the field of energy which promote greater efficiency and environmental ...

* 2017 - The

Hannes Alfvén Prize The Hannes Alfvén Prize is a prize established by the European Physical Society (EPS) Plasma Physics Division in 2000. The Prize is awarded annually by the European Physical Society at the EPS Conference on Plasma Physics for outstanding work in t ...

of the European Physical Society in 2017List of Alfvén Prize Winners
(from the Plasma Physics Division of th
European Physical Society

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Razumova, Ksenia Aleksandrovna Soviet physicists 20th-century Russian physicists 21st-century Russian physicists 1931 births Living people