27 ARTSIMOVICH 



was a student of A. F. loffe (1880-1960, internationally known 

 physicist), the Director. He also taught at the Leningrad Poly- 

 technical Institute and at Leningrad University. In the postwar 

 years, he gave courses on atomic and nuclear physics, first at 

 the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute, then more 

 recently at the Moscow University. In 1946 Artsimovich was 

 elected a Corresponding Member and in 1954 an Academician 

 of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. He was awarded a Stalin 

 Prize in 1953, and in 1958 a Lenin Prize. He has also received 

 a number of orders of the Soviet Union from the government. 



Artsimovich' s first researches were in x-ray optics, par- 

 ticularly on the problem of complete x-ray reflection. This 

 investigation was carried out together with A. I. Alikhanov. In 

 1934-1935 Artsimovich, together with I. V. Kurchatov and 

 others, studied the properties of the neutron and in particular 

 the proton capture by a neutron. This study showed that the 

 capture cross section of slow neutrons by protons is very great. 

 In 1936, Artsimovich, with A. I. Alikhanov and A. I. Alikhanyan, 

 examined the conclusions of the American physicist Shenkland 

 on the possibility of the violation of the laws of conservation 

 in the Compton Effect. An original experiment was set up which 

 confirmed the validity of the laws of conservation in the electron 

 and positron annihilation and refuted the ideas of Shenkland. 



The main subject of his research at the Leningrad Physico- 

 Technical Institute has been the study of the processes of the 

 interaction of fast electrons with matter. In the mid thirties 

 experimental data on bremsstrahlung and the angular distri- 

 bution of electrons diverged from accepted theory by two orders 

 of magnitude. Artsimovich did extensive experiments on the 

 dependence of the bremsstrahlung intensity and the total energy 

 losses on the energy of incident electrons. A careful analysis 

 of the results showed that the quantum -mechanical theory of 

 the passage of fast electrons through matter agrees with ex- 

 perimental data within the accuracy of the experiment. 



During the war years (1943-46) Artsimovich was concerned 

 with electron optics and the theory of chromatic aberrations of 

 the electron optical system; he carried out theoretical and ex- 

 perimental research in the field of electron optical converters. 

 In 1945, Artsimovich and I. Ya. Pomeranchuk did theoretical 

 research on the role of radiation losses in the betatron. This 

 work permitted the establishment of the maximum energy 

 achieved by this type of electron acceleration. Artsimovich was 

 one of a group who developed an electromagnetic method of 

 isotope separation. From currents then available in the 



