Igor Evgenievich Tamm, a short biography, will tell you why that scientist received the Nobel Prize.
Igor Evgenievich Tamm short biography
Born on July 8, 1895 in Vladivostok in the family of a civil engineer. In 1913 he graduated from high school in Elizavetgrad (now Kirovograd) in Ukraine, where the family moved in 1901. He went to study at the University of Edinburgh, where he spent a year (since then he has retained a Scottish accent in English pronunciation); then he returned to Russia, where he graduated from the physics department of Moscow State University and received a diploma in 1918. Tamm married Natalia Shuiskaya in 1917. They had a son and a daughter.
He participated in the First World War as a civilian medical service and was active in the Elizavetgrad city government.
In 1919, Tamm taught physics first at the Crimean University in Simferopol, and later at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute.
In 1922 he returned to Moscow.
From 1954 to 1957 - professor at Moscow State University. Like many physicists, he worked in various fields of science (classical electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, solid state theory, physical optics, nuclear physics, the theory of elementary particles, applied physics, thermonuclear fusion).
The scientist showed the possibility of the existence of special states of electrons on the surface of crystals (Tamm levels). He assumed that the neutron has a magnetic moment.
By 1937, studying the Cherenkov effect, he developed the theory of electron radiation, for which he was awarded the State Prize in 1946 and the Nobel Prize in 1958 (together with I. M. Frank and I. A. Cherenkov).
After completing work on Cherenkov radiation, Tamm returned to research on nuclear forces and elementary particles.
In 1950, Tamm and Andrei Sakharov proposed a method of confining a gas discharge with the help of powerful magnetic fields - a principle that still lies with Soviet physicists at the heart of the desired achievement of a controlled thermonuclear reaction (nuclear fusion).
In 1953, the scientist was elected an academician. In the 60s. Igor Evgenievich worked on the theory of elementary particles. Compatriots appreciated his work: Tamm became the Hero of Socialist Labor, the owner of two State Prizes and a gold medal of MV Lomonosov.
The main merit of the scientist is that he created a school of theoretical physicists - the future pillars of Russian nuclear science.
Nobel prizes- international awards named after their founder, the Swedish chemical engineer A.B. Nobel. Awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, economics (since 1969), for literary works, for activities to strengthen peace. The Nobel Prizes are awarded to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (physics, chemistry, economics), the Royal Carolina Medical and Surgical Institute in Stockholm (physiology and medicine) and the Swedish Academy in Stockholm (literature); in Norway, the Nobel Committee of Parliament awards the Nobel Peace Prizes. Nobel Prizes are not awarded twice or posthumously.
Tamm Igor Evgenievich(1895-1971), Russian theoretical physicist, founder of a scientific school, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953), Hero of Socialist Labor (1953). Works on quantum theory, nuclear physics (theory of exchange interactions), radiation theory, solid state physics, elementary particle physics. One of the authors of the Cherenkov-Vavilov theory of radiation. In 1950, he proposed (together with A.D. Sakharov) to use a heated plasma placed in a magnetic field to obtain a controlled thermonuclear reaction. Author of the textbook "Fundamentals of the Theory of Electricity". State Prize of the USSR (1946, 1953). Nobel Prize (1958, jointly with I. M. Frank and P. A. Cherenkov). Gold medal to them. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968). Without a doubt, the biography of the theoretical physicist Igor Evgenievich Tamm is the clearest example of selfless service to science.
1. Family. Years of study
Father, Evgeny Fedorovich, an engineer, worked in different cities of Russia - in Vladivostok, where he participated in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway (there is still a station named after him named Evgenyevka near Vladivostok), Odessa, Elizavetgrad (now Kirovograd, Ukraine), Kiev ... Mother, Olga Mikhailovna, nee Davydova, came from a military family. In 1913 Tamm, after graduating from high school in Elizavetgrad, entered the University of Edinburgh. The parents, fearing that their son was overly interested in politics and "revolutionary ideas", wanted him to study abroad. However, in 1914 Tamm transferred to the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University, which he graduated in 1918. His studies were interrupted by a voluntary trip to the front as a "brother of mercy" (March-September 1915) and participation in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets in June 1917 (party delegate Mensheviks). In 1917, Tamm married Natalya Vasilievna Shuiskaya.
2. Scientific career
After graduating from Moscow State University, Tamm taught physics at the Taurida University (Simferopol), and then at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute (1919-22). Here, under the leadership of L.I. Mandelstam, whom Tamm considered his teacher all his life, he carried out his first scientific research. In 1922 Tamm moved to Moscow and in 1924 was invited to head the Department of Theoretical Physics at Moscow State University (he taught until 1941 and in 1954-57). In 1929 he published the textbook "Foundations of the Theory of Electricity" (10th edition in 1989), which became widely known and translated into many languages.
In 1934, after the Academy of Sciences moved to Moscow, Tamm worked at the Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1935, he organized the Theoretical Department at the Institute, which he headed until the end of his life (since 1971, the department has been named after Tamm).
In 1933 Tamm was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1953 - an Academician. In 1946 and 1953 he was awarded the State Prize, in 1953 he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, in 1958 - the Nobel Prize.
3. IE Tamm's contribution to physics
The main directions of Tamm's scientific work are related to quantum mechanics, solid state physics, radiation theory, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, as well as to the solution of a number of applied problems.
In 1930, Tamm created the quantum theory of light scattering by crystals and the theory of light scattering by electrons. In 1931 he (together with S.P. Shubin) developed the quantum theory of the photoelectric effect in metals. This area also includes works in which the possibility of special states of electrons on the surface of a crystalline body was shown (the so-called Tamm levels, 1932). These works subsequently acquired great importance in connection with the development of the physics of surface phenomena and microelectronics.
In 1937, together with IM Frank Tamm, he created the theory of Cherenkov-Vavilov radiation (Nobel Prize).
In 1934 and 1936, Tamm published works on the nature of nuclear forces, which influenced the solution of the problem of strong interactions. In the field of nuclear physics, the method of interpreting the interaction of nuclear elementary particles (the Tamm-Dankov method, 1945) is also widely known. In applied physics, the most famous work was carried out in 1950-53, together with A.D. Sakharov, on the confinement and thermal insulation of plasma using magnetic fields (see Controlled thermonuclear fusion).
In 1948 Tamm, despite questionable personal data by the standards of that time (his brother, L.E. in 1950-53 Tamm lived and worked in the closed city of Arzamas-16). This was a direct consequence of both his high scientific reputation and the reputation of the Tamm school.
Among his students are S.P.Shubin, V.L. Ginzburg, L.V. Keldysh, M.A.Markov, A.D. Sakharov.
A characteristic feature of Tamm the scientist is the desire to deal with the most pressing problems of physics. This desire was associated with his inherent courage - both in scientific work (choice of topics, approach to solving a problem, etc.) and in life. Tamm was completely engrossed in the work. In any conditions - at meetings, at home, in transport, on camping trips - he pondered the problems that worried him, was engaged in calculations. With such a preoccupation with science, he was not too keen on failure and quickly switched to finding new approaches to solving the problem.
Tamm's social temperament and adherence to principles was clearly manifested in the 1950s and 1960s, when he took an active part in the struggle against "Lysenkoism" in biology. In 1956, at his insistence, the Department of Biophysics was created at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University; Problems of persecuted genetics were often discussed at the All-Moscow seminar at the Physics Institute, led by Tamm. During these years, Tamm repeatedly and openly made reports and statements about the disastrous role of T. D. Lysenko in biology, about the pseudoscientific nature of his theories. In connection with this activity, N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky wrote: “... I. Ye. Was not only a charming person, but also a full-fledged personality, who inspired everyone with absolute confidence. ... IE has survived in my memory among individuals unusually gifted with a variety of abilities and temperaments, but equally great scientists, such as Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford, Dirac, Schrödinger. "
The significance of Tamm's personality for Russian physicists was determined by A. D. Sakharov: “People of my generation first learned the name of I. Ye. Tamm as the author of a wonderful course in the theory of electricity - for many he was a revelation ... At the same time, we heard the tumult of battles for the theory of relativity, for the quantum theory, captivating rumors reached I.E.'s mountaineering and tourist hobbies. who did not know him personally) was surrounded by a halo - not in the supernatural, but in a simply high human sense. In him, along with Landau, Soviet theoretical physicists saw their well-deserved and recognized head ... "
4. The last years of life
At the end of 1968, Tamm fell seriously ill (atrophy of the spinal cord regions responsible for the muscular activity of the diaphragm). An operation was performed to connect the body to an artificial respiration apparatus. For the first one and a half to two years, Tamm was still actively working: while remaining “connected” to the apparatus, he sat at his desk and studied for 5-6 hours a day. At this time, he was fascinated by the problems of field theory, constantly communicated with employees of his department, was interested in the news of physics, biology, and politics. In 1968, Tamm was awarded the highest award of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR - a gold medal named after
M.V. Lomonosov. The report on the general meeting of the Academy written by Tamm, which was supposed for the laureate, was read by A.D.Sakharov at his request. In the last year of his life, Tamm could no longer work at his desk, but, remaining in bed, he studied science to the end, performed calculations.
Literature
- Gernek F. Pioneers of the Atomic Age. - M .: Progress, 1974.
- Illustrated encyclopedic dictionary. - M, 1995.
- Kudryavtsev PS Course in the history of physics. - M .: Education, 1974.
- Cholakov V. Nobel Prizes. - M .: Nauka, 1984.
Tamm Igor Evgenievich
Born: June 26 (July 8) 1895.
Died: April 12, 1971.
Biography
Igor Evgenievich Tamm (1895-1971) - Soviet theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in physics (together with P. A. Cherenkov and I. M. Frank, 1958). Laureate of two Stalin Prizes. Hero of Socialist Labor (1953).
Igor Evgenievich Tamm was born on June 26 (July 8), 1895 in Vladivostok in the family of engineer Evgeny Fedorovich Tamm (German by nationality) and Olga Mikhailovna Davydova. In 1898, his family moved to Elisavetgrad (later Kirovograd, Ukraine), where Igor's father worked for many years as a “city engineer”: he supervised the water supply and construction of the city power plant.
In 1901, Igor's younger brother Leonid was born, who later became deputy chief engineer of the Main Directorate of the Nitrogen Industry of the USSR People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (he was shot on May 28, 1937 on charges of participating in the counter-revolutionary Trotskyite-Zinovievist terrorist organization).
After graduating from high school in Elisavetgrad, Igor Tamm studied at the University of Edinburgh. Before the outbreak of the First World War, he transferred to the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1918 with a diploma in physics.
He volunteered for the front as a "brother of mercy." After a short-term passion for politics (Menshevik-internationalist, deputy of the 1st Congress of Soviets from Elisavetgrad) begins an academic career. He teaches at various higher educational institutions: Taurida University (Simferopol) (1919-1920), since 1920 he has been collaborating with L. I. Mandelstam, works at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute (since 1993 - Odessa National Polytechnic University) (1921-1922) , where L.I. Mandelstam headed the department.
From 1922 (with two short breaks) to the end of his career activity I. E. Tamm proceeds in Moscow. For many years he has headed the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Physics Department of Moscow State University, where he becomes an associate professor and professor. This department was one of the key departments of the faculty, since general courses were taught at this department: theoretical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, statistical physics.
Since 1934, he additionally works at the P.N. Lebedev FIAN, establishes and heads the theoretical department there.
On February 1, 1933, I. Ye. Tamm was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. This meteoric rise of his career stopped in 1939, after his brother and also a close friend of BM Gessen were arrested and shot. Pressure began from the leadership of FIAN, and. O. V.S.Fursov was elected head of the department.
In 1942 he became the first head of the Department of Theoretical Nuclear Physics at MEPhI. His opponent was A.A. Vlasov, who was supported by the dean A.S. Predvoditelev and Scientist faculty council. As a result, Tamm lost to Vlasov (5 votes against 24), but these results were disputed by the scientific community in the form of a letter from 14 academicians. V.A.Fok was appointed to the post of head of the department by the party leadership.
In 1949, Igor Evgenievich returned to the Lomonosov Moscow State University to the Department of Quantum Theory and Electrodynamics (part of the Department of Theoretical Physics after the division thereof). I. Ye. Tamm receives the Stalin Prize from the hands of I. V. Stalin himself. On October 23, 1953, IE Tamm became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physics and Mathematics.
In 1955 he signed the "Letter of Three Hundred". In the 1960s, I. Ye. Tamm was an active participant in the Pugwash movement of scientists. In 1966, he signed a letter from 25 cultural and scientific workers to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L.I.Brezhnev against the rehabilitation of Stalin.
IE Tamm died on April 12, 1971 from ALS, which led to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Shortly before his death, he had to resort to mechanical ventilation using a special apparatus. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (plot No. 7).
Scientific activity
The main directions of Tamm's scientific work relate to quantum mechanics, solid state physics, radiation theory, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, as well as to the solution of a number of applied problems.
Together with I. M. Frank in 1937 he described (the Frank - Tamm formula) the motion of particles in a medium with a speed exceeding the speed of light in this medium. This work explained the previously obtained experimental data (the Vavilov - Cherenkov effect), for which Cherenkov, Frank and Tamm received the Nobel Prize in 1958. In 1945, he developed a method for solving problems of quantum field theory, called the Tamm - Dankov method.
Together with AD Sakharov, he developed the principles of plasma confinement in a tokamak.
Among his students are S.P.Shubin, E.L. Feinberg, V.L. Ginzburg, L.V. Keldysh, D.I.Blokhintsev, M.A.Markov, A.D. Sakharov, V.G. Kadyshevsky, S. A. Altshuler, D. A. Kirzhnits, A. A. Vlasov.
Family
son of EI Tamm, a famous climber, leader of the first Soviet Himalayan expedition (Everest, 1982).
granddaughter of M.E. Tamm, teaches chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University.
daughter I. I. Tamm, until the last years of her life was engaged in physical chemistry, a specialist in explosions.
grandson L.I. Vereshchinsky, archaeologist, guardian of his grandfather's legacy.
Titles and awards
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1933)
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953)
Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946) - for the discovery and study of the emission of electrons when they move in matter with superluminal speed, the results of which are summarized and published in "Proceedings of the Lebedev Physical Institute" (1944)
Stalin Prize (1953)
Hero of Socialist Labor (1953)
Nobel Prize in Physics (with P. A. Cherenkov and I. M. Frank, 1958)
Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1959)
foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1959)
Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961)
member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina", GDR (1964)
The Lomonosov Grand Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1967) for outstanding achievements in the theory of elementary particles and other areas of theoretical physics
Memory
A square in Moscow is named after Academician Tamm.
In Vladivostok, in front of the building of the Institute of Physics and Information Technologies of the Far Eastern Federal University, a monument to Tamm is erected.
The name of I.E. Tamm was assigned to the Theoretical Department of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN).
The name of I.E. Tamm bears the RAS Prize, which has been awarded since 1995 for outstanding work in theoretical physics and physics of elementary particles, and field theory.
A monument to I.Ye. Tammu, which was opened on September 22, 2012.
In honor of I.E. Tamm, the A320 VP-BID aircraft in the Aeroflot fleet is named.
In honor of I.E. Tamm, the Tammovsky plasmon is named.
In 1976, the International Astronomical Union named IE Tamm to a crater on the far side of the Moon.
Tamm Igor Evgenievich - theoretical physicist, head of the sector of design bureau No. 11 (Arzamas-16), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences.
Born June 26 (July 8) 1895 in Vladivostok. The son of a civil engineer who worked on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. From a German family that moved to Russia in the middle of the 19th century. In 1898, the family moved to the city of Elizavetgrad, Kherson province (then Kirovograd, now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine).
He graduated from the Elizavetgrad gymnasium in 1913. In 1913 he went to study at the University of Edinburgh (Great Britain), finished the first year at the Faculty of Exact Sciences. In the early summer of 1914, he returned home and entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. In 1915 he volunteered for the Russian Imperial Army, for several months he was at the front of the First World War as part of a sanitary detachment. At the insistence of his family, he returned to Moscow and continued his studies. Graduated from Moscow University in 1918. He took an active part in the revolutionary events of 1917, belonged to the faction of Menshevik-internationalists, was a delegate to the 1st Congress of Soviets.
In 1919, Tamm began his career as an assistant at the Department of Physics at the Crimean University in Simferopol. Since 1921 - a lecturer at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute under the guidance of the outstanding physicist L.I. Mandelstam, who had an exceptionally strong influence on the young scientist. Since 1922 - in Moscow, lecturer and assistant professor (since 1923) at the Y.M. Communist University. Sverdlov (until 1925). Simultaneously, from 1923, he worked at the Faculty of Theoretical Physics of the Second Moscow State University and held the post of professor there in 1927-1929. In addition, since 1924, Tamm simultaneously taught at Moscow State University (supernumerary teacher, from 1926 - assistant professor, in 1930-1941 and from 1954 to 1957 - professor).
During this period of his scientific activity, Tamm built the quantum theory of light scattering in solids (1930) and the theory of light scattering by electrons (1930). In the field of the quantum theory of metals, together with S.P. Shubin, he created the theory of the photoelectric effect in metals (1931). He theoretically showed the possibility of the existence of special states of electrons on the surface of crystals ("Tamm levels", 1932), which later formed the basis for explaining various surface effects in crystals.
In 1930, Tamm became a professor and head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Moscow State University (until 1937). When the Academy moved from Leningrad to Moscow in 1934, Tamm became the head of the theoretical physics sector of the P.N. Lebedev Academic Institute (then - the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences), and he held this post until the end of his life. Tamm studied the electrodynamics of anisotropic solids (that is, those that have very different physical properties and characteristics) and the optical properties of crystals. Turning to quantum mechanics, in 1930, Tamm explained acoustic vibrations and the scattering of light in solid media. In his work, the idea of the quanta of sound waves was first expressed. Tamm explained the photoelectric emission of electrons from a metal, that is, the emission caused by light irradiation. He found that electrons near the surface of a crystal can be in special energy states, later called Tamm surface levels. Tamm and S. Altshuller predicted that the neutron, despite its lack of charge, has a negative magnetic moment.
In 1934, Tamm tried to explain with the help of his beta theory the nature of the forces holding the particles of the nucleus together. According to this theory, the decay of nuclei caused by the emission of beta particles leads to the appearance of a special kind of force between any two nucleons. He found that beta forces did exist, but were too weak to act as "nuclear glue." Subsequently, Tamm mathematically developed this quantitative theory of nuclear forces according to the scheme on which the modern meson theory of nuclear forces was created.
In 1936-1937, physicists Igor Tamm and Ilya Frank proposed a theory explaining the nature of the radiation that Pavel Cherenkov discovered by observing refractive media exposed to gamma radiation. Tamm and Frank considered the case of an electron moving faster than light in a medium. Although this is not possible in a vacuum, this phenomenon occurs in a refractive medium. Thus, I. Tamm became one of the founders of the Cherenkov-Vavilov theory of radiation.
In 1943-1950 - Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1946-1950 - Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Moscow Mechanical Institute. In 1945, he developed an approximate method for interpreting the interaction and nuclear elementary particles (Tamm's method). In 1946, Igor Tamm was recruited to work on the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. According to some publications, the issue of this was decided back in 1943, but then, due to the nationality of the scientist, his candidacy was rejected. In particular, Tamm worked on the study of the nature of the high-intensity shock wave.
In 1948, the task arose to create a hydrogen bomb. At the suggestion of IV Kurchatov, IE Tamm organized a group to study this issue, although many scientists did not believe even in the fundamental possibility of creating such a weapon. However, already in 1950, such a task was set, and with extremely tight deadlines. Tamm with a group of employees of the Physics Institute was transferred to KB-11 in the city of Arzamas-16, now Sarov, head of department, in May 1952 was appointed head of the sector.
Using the ideas developed since 1948, the group of Academician Tamm, in particular, young employees V.L. Ginzburg and A.D. Sakharov, put forward several most important original and elegant proposals, which made it possible to create such a bomb in the shortest possible time. In particular, a method was proposed for confining a gas discharge using powerful magnetic fields - a principle that still underlies the desired achievement of a controlled thermonuclear reaction (nuclear fusion). The first Soviet hydrogen bomb was successfully tested on August 12, 1953. Remarkable is the fact that, unlike the American hydrogen bomb, first tested in November 1952, the domestic one operated according to a different scheme and was a finished device, quite ready for practical use.
"For exceptional services to the state in the performance of a special assignment of the Government" by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 4, 1954 (classified as "secret") Tamm Igor Evgenievich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
At the beginning of 1954, Academician I.E. Tamm returned to Moscow and worked at the Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences until the end of his life. In 1954-1957 he was again a professor at Moscow State University. The author of the fundamental course "Foundations of the Theory of Electricity" (1929), which was reprinted 8 times only during the author's lifetime, was translated into many languages of the world. The total number of scientific works of I.E. Tamm is in the hundreds. He created a school of theoretical physicists, to which many outstanding Soviet and Russian scientists belong.
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953). Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1934). Member of the Bureau of the Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1957-1959). Member of the Bureau of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1963-1970). Member of the editorial board of the journals "Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" (1963-1969) and "Nuclear Physics" (1964-1971). Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1934).
In 1958, Tamm, Frank and Cherenkov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on the theory of Cherenkov-Vavilov radiation. The presentation of the highest scientific world award to three Soviet scientists at once (the first and only case in the history of the Nobel Prize) became a vivid recognition of the achievements of Russian physical science.
I.E. Tamm was elected a member of many scientific academies of the world: full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1959), ordinary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1959), honorary member of the US National Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston, 1961), honorary member of the National Academy Sciences in New York (USA, 1970), a member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (GDR, 1964). Gold medal named after M.V. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968).
Since the mid-1960s, he was seriously ill, for several years he was connected to a forced breathing device, but he continued to conduct scientific work until the last days of his life. He lived in the hero city of Moscow. He died on April 12, 1971. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow (section 7).
He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin (09/19/1953, 01/04/1954, 09/11/1956, 07/07/1965), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (06/10/1945), the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." (1946), other medals.
Laureate of two Stalin Prizes of the USSR (1946, 1953). Nobel Prize (1958).
Monument to I.E. Tammu opened in Vladivostok. The name of Academician I.E. Tamm was given to the square in Moscow. Memorial plaques to the scientist are installed on the building of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, on the building of the former gymnasium in the city of Kirovograd, in which he studied, as well as on the building of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics in the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region. In 1995, the Russian Academy of Sciences established the I.E. Tamm Prize. The theoretical department of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is named after him.
Born June 26 (July 8) 1895 in Vladivostok.
He died on April 12, 1971 in Moscow.
1958 Nobel Prize in Physics (jointly with P.A.Cherenkov and I.M.Frank).
The wording of the Nobel committee: "for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect."
The age for receiving the award is 63 years old.
Today's hero in our Nobel cycle is important to me for several reasons. First, he is a Russian (Soviet) nobelist. Secondly, he is one of so far ten of our Phystech laureates (let me remind you that eight of them are teachers, and two are graduates; I have already written about two of them). And thirdly, and this is already completely personal, this laureate found his scientific vocation in my native Odessa, although he himself is from Vladivostok.
No, I'm not talking about Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, we will talk about him later. We are talking about the 1958 Nobel laureate in physics, one of the fathers of the hydrogen bomb, Igor Evgenievich Tamm. Surprisingly, this person did not receive his award for the main research and discoveries in his life, moreover, his Nobel laureate students are now much more popular than himself.
But during his lifetime he was the same legend as Landau, perhaps not so shocking. But there was folklore about Tamm. “Is it possible to think of such a thing - Igor Tamm is in the resting system” - this is about our hero. And his surname was speaking. There are three variants of the origin of this surname. The most common is from the Estonian word tamm, oak. In addition, in German it is "dam, dam". Moreover, there is a variant of the etymology of the word from the short form of the personal name Tancmar - from words with the meanings "to think" and "known." Not bad, right?
It is curious that the second meaning of this word is also suitable for his father, who was a military builder and in Vladivostok, where the future Nobelist was born, turned out to be because he built mills for the needs of the Pacific Fleet. When Igor was 6 years old, his family made a long journey and moved to the territory of modern Ukraine, to Elizavetgrad (now - Kirovograd). He graduated from high school in the same place where he became addicted to the main youth fashion of that time - politics and Marxism. The parents, out of harm's way, sent the child to study at the University of Edinburgh (by the way, Peter Higgs is now teaching there), and ... the boy finally became a Marxist.
For a time, Tamm was more involved in politics than physics, for which he had a clear talent. But the war broke out, and Tamm, by that time already studying at Moscow University, in 1915 went to the front as a brother of mercy. However, a few months later he returned and in 1918 graduated from the university. By that time, Tamm had already married (to the sister of a classmate of Natalia Shuyskaya) and joined the Mensheviks. However, he did not seem to become a member of the party. Tamm went to teach - first to Simferopol, to the Tavrichesky University (by the way, one of Tamm's students was then a certain Igor Kurchatov), and then to Odessa, where much in the young man's thoughts changed. This happened thanks to an Odessa citizen, Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam, who taught at the Odessa Polytechnic. It was the meeting with Mandelstam that showed Tamm that politics is nothing, and physics is everything. Until the teacher's death in 1944, Tamm maintained a relationship with him.
Leonid Mandelstam (1879-1944)
In 1922, Tamm came to Moscow and worked at the Communist University named after. Sverdlov (there was one, from 1918 to 1937). I managed to complete a six-month internship in Germany and Holland, made friends with Paul Dirac, and met Einstein. By the way, one of the very first scientific works of Tamm was devoted to the theory of relativity. The work was highly appreciated and accepted for publication by Einstein himself. Gradually, Tamm began teaching at Moscow State University, but he was afraid to go into "pure science" - they paid little money. The wife helped - she started selling family jewelry. Very quickly Tamm began a full-fledged work in science and already in 1930 for the first time put forward the idea of quanta of sound waves - phonons.
In 1933, Tamm was already a Corresponding Member (at 38 years old - very good), in 1934 - head of the sector of the Physics Institute. Lebedev (now FIAN). In 1934, for the first time, Tamm put forward the idea that the forces holding together the particles of the nucleus (strong interaction) have an exchange nature. True, unlike the Japanese Hideki Yukawa, who a year later suggested that particles-carriers of strong interaction are mesons and subsequently received a "Nobel" for this, Tamm believed that particles-carriers of interaction are electrons and neutrinos. By the way, Yukawa honestly admitted that it was Tamm's work that prompted him to think about mesons-carriers of interaction, and referred to Igor Evgenievich in his work.
Hideki Yukawa
In 1936-1937. Tamm, together with Ilya Frank, explained what caused the very strange Vavilov-Cherenkov effect - the glow under the influence of radiation, discovered by Pavel Cherenkov in the laboratory of Sergei Vavilov.
Pavel Cherenkov
Tamm and Frank suggested that luminescence occurs when a particle moves in a medium at a speed exceeding the speed of light in it. And they built the correct theory of this phenomenon with the correct mathematical apparatus. Now we know that, for example, the bluish glow of radioactive substances in water is caused by the fact that electrons during beta decay move at a speed exceeding 225 thousand kilometers per second - the speed of light in water.
Vavilov-Cherenkov effect in water cooling a reactor
It is amazing that this work was done at a time when trouble struck in Tamm's family - his brother, a major engineer working in the Donbass, was shot. 1937 ... For some time his sector was liquidated, but Tamm himself was not touched. He was even attracted to work on the creation of atomic weapons, but he was reluctant, and he did not have access to the most secret information. However, in 1948, Tamm's group began work on a more powerful weapon - thermonuclear. First - theoretical research, then, in 1950, he leaves for Arzamas-16 - Sarov. With him are two best students, two future Nobel laureates (and future professors of MIPT) - Vitaly Ginzburg and Andrei Sakharov.
Vitaly Ginzburg
Andrey Sakharov
At the same time, Tamm managed from 1947 to 1949. to work as a professor at the Physics and Technology Faculty of Moscow State University, on the basis of which the MIPT was later established. Tamm was in Arzamas-16 until the very test of the "product" in 1953 (he personally took part in the work), while he was engaged not only in the bomb. If not to talk about chess and Agatha Christie (Igor Evgenievich was passionately fond of detectives), then in parallel with the work on the bomb, already in 1950, together with Sakharov, he proposed the principle of magnetic plasma confinement in a thermonuclear reaction, which is still the basis of working thermonuclear reactions (including the currently under construction ITER).
After the success of the "hydrogen project", Tamm's authority in the Academy of Sciences increased; moreover, a "thaw" began. After Stalin's death, in the same 1953, Tamm became an academician, and even was able to afford to go back to politics - in 1955 he signed the famous "letter of three hundred" criticizing Trofim Lysenko (I met evidence that Tamm corresponded with the discoverer of the structure DNA Watson), became involved in the Pugwash Movement of Scientists to Prevent Thermonuclear War. In 1958, our hero finally received the Nobel Prize - together with Cherenkov, who discovered the effect, and Frank, the co-author of the theory. True, according to Tamm himself, he was offended that he received it for the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect, and not for the exchange theory of nuclear forces.
Ilya Frank
One more important achievement of Tamm must be said. It was thanks to him that quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity entered university physics curricula.
Unfortunately, the last years of Igor Evgenievich's life were very difficult - and not because of problems with state power. He fell ill, and became ill with an incurable illness. Alas, in the entire history of medicine, only two people were able not only to recover, but not to die from this disease. One of them is the world famous physicist Stephen Hawking. But alas, not every great scientist can cope with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In 1971, Tamm, who had been forced to live on a ventilator for three years, passed away. They say that he tried to work to the last - this remained the only opportunity for "movement" for him and helped Tamm not to feel like a "butterfly on a pin."