Spartak Timofeyevich Belyaev (October 27, 1923 – January 5, 2017) was a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist who was awarded a

Lomonosov Gold Medal The Lomonosov Gold Medal (russian: Большая золотая медаль имени М. В. Ломоносова ''Bol'shaya zolotaya medal' imeni M. V. Lomonosova''), named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarde ...

Biography

Belyaev was born on October 27, 1923 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia. When World War II began, he graduated from high school and by August 1941 enlisted himself into the Army as a volunteer. During that time he participated in various battles in

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and liberation of Poland in 1945. After long years of war, he declined the offer on keeping the career and instead decided to become a physicist by applying to the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. Two years later he already got a job there as a researcher at the Atomic Energy Institute which later on was renamed as

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

. He worked there till 1962 and between that year and 1958 also worked at the

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics. ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. In 1962 he decided to change his lifestyle a bit; he moved to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

and in 1968 was elected as a full member of

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. He worked at the

Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) is one of the major centres of advanced study of nuclear physics in Russia. It is located in the Siberian town Akademgorodok, on Academician Lavrentiev Avenue. The institute was founded by Gers ...

. For his breakthroughs and research in physics he was awarded the

Landau Gold Medal The Landau Gold Medal (russian: Премия имени Л. Д. Ландау) is the highest award in theoretical physics awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and its predecessor the Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1971 ...

in 1998 and the Feenberg medal in 2004. On May 17, 2011 he and

Gerard 't Hooft Gerardus (Gerard) 't Hooft (; born July 5, 1946) is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating the ...

were awarded a Lomonosov Gold Medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

References

1923 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Russian physicists 21st-century Russian physicists Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology alumni Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Russian physicists Soviet physicists {{Russia-physicist-stub Deaths from pneumonia in Russia Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Scientists from Moscow Scientists from Novosibirsk