George Gamow
| George Gamow | |
|---|---|
| Born | Georgiy Antonovich Gamov March 4, 1904 (O.S. February 20, 1904) Odessa, Russian Empire |
| Died | August 19, 1968 (aged 64) Boulder, Colorado, United States |
| Citizenship |
Soviet Union, United States |
| Fields | Physicist, science writer |
| Institutions |
University of Göttingen Niels Bohr Institute Cavendish Laboratory George Washington University University of California, Berkeley University of Colorado Boulder |
| Alma mater | Leningrad State University |
| Doctoral advisor | Alexander Friedmann |
| Doctoral students |
Ralph Asher Alpher Vera Rubin |
| Known for |
Gamow factor Gamow–Teller transition Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper Alpha decay Liquid drop model quantum tunnelling Big Bang One Two Three ... Infinity |
| Notable awards | Kalinga Prize (1956) |
George Gamow (March 4 [O.S. February 20] 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov (Russian: Гео́ргий Анто́нович Га́мов; IPA: [ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡaməf]), was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory. He discovered a theoretical explanation of alpha decay via quantum tunneling, and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis and Big Bang nucleosynthesis (which he collectively called nucleocosmogenesis), and molecular genetics.
In his middle and late career, Gamow focused more on teaching and wrote popular books on science, including One Two Three ... Infinity and the Mr Tompkins ... series of books (1939–1967). Some of his books are still in print, more than a half-century after their original publication.
Gamow was born in Odessa, Russian Empire. His father taught Russian language and literature in high school, and his mother taught geography and history at a school for girls. In addition to Russian, Gamow learned to speak some French from his mother and German from a tutor. Gamow learned fluent English in his college years and later. Most of his early publications were in German or Russian, but he later switched to writing in English for both technical papers and for the lay audience.
...
Wikipedia