Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler (russian: Владимир Иосифович Векслер; ; March 4, 1907 – September 22, 1966) was a prominent Soviet experimental physicist.
Biography
Veksler was born in
Zhitomir on March 4, 1907 in the
Russian Empire to a Jewish family.
Veksler's family moved from Zhitomir to Moscow in 1915. In 1931 he graduated from the
Moscow Power Engineering Institute. He began working at the
Lebedev Physical Institute in 1936, and became involved in particle detector development and the study of
cosmic rays. He participated in a number of expeditions to the
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
and to
Mount Elbrus
Mount Elbrus ( rus, links=no, Эльбрус, r=Elbrus, p=ɪlʲˈbrus; kbd, Ӏуащхьэмахуэ, 'uaşhəmaxuə; krc, Минги тау, Mingi Taw) is the highest and most prominent peak in Russia and Europe. It is situated in the we ...
, which were devoted to the study of
cosmic ray composition. In 1944, he began working in the field of
accelerator physics, where he became famous for the invention of the
microtron,
and the development of the
synchrotron
A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator, descended from the cyclotron, in which the accelerating particle beam travels around a fixed closed-loop path. The magnetic field which bends the particle beam into its closed p ...
in independence to
Edwin McMillan, pursuing the development of modern
particle accelerators.
In 1956 he established and became the first director of the Laboratory of High Energy at the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in
Dubna, where the
Synchrophasotron
The Synchrophasotron was a synchrotron-based particle accelerator for protons at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna that was operational from 1957 to 2003. It was designed and constructed under supervision of Vladimir Veksler, who ha ...
, that, along with
Protvino, incorporated the largest circular
proton accelerators in the world at their time, was constructed under his leadership.
From 1946 to 1957, he was a corresponding member of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Veksler became a full member of the Academy in 1958. In 1963 he was appointed head of the Nuclear Physics Department of the Academy. In 1965, Veksler established the journal ''Nuclear Physics'' (''Yadernaya Fizika'') and became its first editor-in-chief.
The
Russian Academy of Sciences established in 1994 the V. I. Veksler Prize for outstanding achievement in accelerator physics (and in 1991 awarded the V. I. Veksler Gold Medal to
Alexander N. Skrinsky). Streets in
Dubna,
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
,
Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, a ...
and
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
are named in Veksler's honour.
Awards
He received numerous honours, including the
Stalin Prize in 1951, the American
Atoms for Peace Award in 1963
and the
Lenin Prize in 1959.
See also
*
Synchrophasotron
The Synchrophasotron was a synchrotron-based particle accelerator for protons at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna that was operational from 1957 to 2003. It was designed and constructed under supervision of Vladimir Veksler, who ha ...
*
U-70 (synchrotron)
References
External links
* (See
Nobel Prize#Nominations.)
1907 births
1966 deaths
20th-century Ukrainian physicists
Scientists from Zhytomyr
People from Volhynian Governorate
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Moscow Power Engineering Institute alumni
Atoms for Peace Award recipients
Stalin Prize winners
Lenin Prize winners
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Soviet nuclear physicists
Soviet inventors
Accelerator physicists
Jewish Ukrainian scientists
Ukrainian inventors
{{Russia-physicist-stub
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery