Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov (russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Вави́лов) ( – January 25, 1951) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

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 ...

, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union from July 1945 until his death. His elder brother Nikolai Vavilov was a famous Russian geneticist.

Biography

Vavilov founded the Soviet school of

physical optics In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effec ...

, known by his works in

luminescence Luminescence is spontaneous emission of light by a substance not resulting from heat; or "cold light". It is thus a form of cold-body radiation. It can be caused by chemical reactions, electrical energy, subatomic motions or stress on a cryst ...

. In 1934 he co-discovered the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect, a discovery for which Pavel Cherenkov was awarded a

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

in 1958. The Kasha–Vavilov rule of luminescence quantum yields is also named for him. He was a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1932, Head of the

Lebedev Institute of Physics The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS or just LPI) (in russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated ...

(since 1934), a chief editor of the ''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

'', a member of the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet (russian: Верховный Совет, Verkhovny Sovet, Supreme Council) was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ...

from 1946 and a recipient of four Stalin Prizes (1943, 1946, 1951, 1952). He wrote on the lives and works of great thinkers, such as

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

Mikhail Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; russian: Михаил (Михайло) Васильевич Ломоносов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ , a=Ru-Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov.ogg; – ) was a Russian Empire, Russian polymath, s ...

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

, and

Pyotr Lebedev Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev (; 24 February 1866 – 1 March 1912) was a Russian physicist. His name was also transliterated as Peter Lebedew and Peter Lebedev. Lebedev was a creator of first scientific school in Russia. Career Lebedev made his do ...

, among others. At the end of 1950, Vavilov's health who was suffering from heart and lung diseases deteriorated significantly. In December-January he was treated at the

Barvikha Sanatorium Barvikha (russian: Барви́ха) is a village in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is the site of the Barvikha Sanatorium, the health resort of the President of Russia. During the Soviet era, Barvikha was known as the site of ...

. Returning from the sanatorium on January 12, 1951, he chaired an expanded meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. On January 25, 1951, at 4:45 a.m., he died of a

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

Legacy

A meteorological station (as well as a glacier and an

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description Ice caps are not constrained by topographical features ...

) in

October Revolution Island October Revolution Island (Russian: Остров Октябрьской Революции, ''Ostrov Oktyabrskoy Revolyutsii'') is the largest island of the Severnaya Zemlya group in the Russian Arctic. It is named after the October Revolution ...

, in the Severnaya Zemlya group have been named after Vavilov. A

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

2862 Vavilov 2862 Vavilov, provisional designation , is a stony background asteroid and exceptionally slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 May 1977, by Soviet astronomer Niko ...

discovered in 1977 by

astronomer

Nikolai Chernykh Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh (russian: Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х) (6 October 1931 – 25 May 2004Казакова, Р.К. Памяти Николая Степановича Черных'. Труды Государст ...

is named after him and his brother Nikolai Vavilov. The crater ''

Vavilov Vavilov (russian: Вави́лов) is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrey Petrovich Vavilov (b. 1961), Russian politician and businessman * Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943), Russian geneticist * Sergey Ivanovich Vavi ...

'' on the far side of the Moon is also named after him and his brother. There is a ship named after him, the

Akademik Sergey Vavilov The ''Akademik Sergey Vavilov'' (russian: Академик Сергей Вавилов) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) research vessel, named after physicist Sergey Vavilov. She was completed on 12 February 1988, at the Hollming Yard in Rauma, ...

. She is a research vessel that can carry approximately 150 crew and passengers, and is a Class-1A icebreaker which regularly makes trips to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

and the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

. In the summer of 2010 she was working in and around the coast of

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

. Also, an Aeroflot plane, with VO-BHL identification number is named after him.

References

# М. Борисов, "Изследванията на С. И. Вавилов върху физиката на луминесцентните явления", Научно-популярна сесия в памет на акад. Сергей Иванович Вавилов (17 – 18.10.1951), София, Изд. БАН, с. 39–77 (1954) # Н. Ахабабян, Сергей Иванович Вавилов (по случай 100 години от рождението му), Светът на физиката, кн. 1, с. 30–35 (1991) # Л. Спасов, Г. Камишева, Милко Борисов за себе си и другите за него, София, Акад. изд. "Проф. М. Дринов" (2008) с. 183

External links

Sergei Vavilov: luminary of Russian physics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vavilov, Sergey 1891 births 1951 deaths 20th-century Russian physicists Academic staff of Bauman Moscow State Technical University Foreign Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences ITMO University Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Academic staff of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Academic staff of Moscow Power Engineering Institute Presidents of the Russian Academy of Sciences Presidents of the USSR Academy of Sciences Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Third convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian military personnel of World War I Russian physicists Soviet physicists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences editors