Chronicle

Awarding of the Stalin Prizes for 1945

The Stalin Prizes for 1945 have recognized a number of outstanding studies and inventions in the field of physics.

A First-Degree Prize has been awarded to Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Ivan Vasil’evich Obreimov (Institute of Organic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR) for studies in the field of optics and crystal physics, completed with the publication of the work “On the Application of Fresnel Diffraction to Physical and Chemical Measurements.” In the very first years after the Revolution, when the question arose of creating domestic optical industry, I. V. Obreimov developed an original method for determining the refractive index and dispersion of glass, combining simplicity with an accuracy exceeding that of all other methods. This method, based on the use of diffraction phenomena and the application of immersion liquids, makes it possible, in particular, to monitor the quality of glass during melting, thereby ensuring the very standard quality of the product. I. V.’s instrument is at present the principal control instrument in the optical industry. In new works I. V. developed his method, extending the range of its application (determination of small temperature changes, diffusion rates, the composition of liquid mixtures, etc.). I. V. is responsible for a number of studies on absorption spectra, luminescence, and the mechanical properties of crystals.

“For the discovery and investigation of the extremely high dielectric permittivity of barium titanate,” a Second-Degree Prize has been awarded to Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Bentsion Moiseevich Vul (Lebedev Physical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR). Many years of research on the electrical insulating properties of matter led B. M. to the study of barium titanate. He found that this substance possesses exceptionally high dielectric permittivity, tens of times exceeding that of previously known insulating materials and capable of reaching several thousand. In addition to its great practical importance (industrial application), the study carried out by B. M. is of interest for the development of the theory of the solid body.

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Aleksandr Pavlovich Zhdanov (Radium Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR) has been awarded a Second-Degree Prize for the discovery of a new type of splitting of atomic nuclei under the action of cosmic radiation. In contrast to the previously known splitting of nuclei into large fragments, in the cases investigated by A. P. the nuclei undergo, apparently, complete disintegration into component parts, with the ejection of a considerable (up to one hundred) number of protons. The phenomenon discovered by A. P. has as yet not been explained theoretically and undoubtedly opens new horizons in the science of the nucleus and cosmic rays. These investigations were carried out by the method of thick-layer photographic plates, proposed by Prof. L. V. Mysovskii and considerably improved by A. P.

A Second-Degree Prize has also been awarded to a group of scientific workers of the State Optical Institute: Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Torichan Pavlovich Kravets, Doctor of Chemical Sciences Yurii Nikolaevich Gorokhovskii, Stepan Semenovich Gilev,

To Igor Nikolaevich Chernyi, Feoktist Lavrent’evich Burmistrov, and Georgii Ivanovich Kireev for the development of a new system and instruments for determining the sensitivity of photoemulsions. Until recently, the assessment of the sensitivity of photoemulsions had remained, to a considerable extent, arbitrary. The methodology and apparatus developed as a result of ten years of work place the determination of the properties of photosensitive emulsions on a strictly scientific basis. The work is of great importance both for scientific photography and for the photographic and motion-picture industries.

A Prize of the 3rd degree was awarded to Leonid Mikhailovich Ivantsov (Gintsvetmet), Prof. Sergei Leonidovich Mandelshtam (Institute of Steel named after I. V. Stalin), Nikolai Semyonovich Sventitskii (GOI), and Vasilii Filippovich Smirnov (ZIS) for the development and introduction of apparatus for spectral analysis. They developed the principles of spectral analysis of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and created convenient and simple apparatus (spectral instruments and sources for exciting spectra) for rapid analysis under factory conditions. Thanks to their work, spectral analysis has become a working method of control at many factories.