Lev Landau

@Scientists, Family and Childhood

Lev Landau was a well-known Soviet theoretical physicist

Jan 22, 1908

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: January 22, 1908
  • Died on: April 1, 1968
  • Nationality: Russian
  • Famous: Scientists, Physicists
  • Spouses: K. T. Drobanzeva (married 1937; 1 child)
  • Known as: L. D. Landau
  • Universities:
    • Saint Petersburg State University
    • Baku State University

Lev Landau born at

Baku, Baku Governorate, Russian Empire

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Birth Place

Lev Landau married Kora T. Drobanzeva in 1937 and the couple had a son, Igor in 1946.

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Personal Life

He believed in the practice of ‘free love’ as opposed to monogamy. He was also known to have signed a pact with his wife on ‘of non-aggression in married life’. Lev Landau was an atheist.

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Personal Life

It is believed that he was hospitalized multiple times at the Kashchenko psychiatric hospital.

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Personal Life

Lev Davidovich Landau was born on 22 January 1908 at Baku in Azerbaijan. His parents were Jewish. His father was as an engineer while his mother a physician.

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Childhood & Early Life

As a child, he was known to be brilliant in mathematics and completed his schooling from gymnasium in 1920. As he was only 13 years, his parents enrolled him the Baku Economical Technical School, as he was too young to attend college.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1922, he registered at the Baku State University and studied in multiple departments at the same time. He enrolled for courses in the Department of Mathematics and Physics and the Department of Chemistry. However, after a short while he ceased to pursue his studies in Chemistry.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1924, he enrolled at the Department of Physics at the Leningrad State University. While studying here, he got introduced to the concept of theoretical physics and focused his studies on the subject. He completed his graduation in 1927, when he was 19-year-old.

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Childhood & Early Life

During the years 1929 and 1931, he was awarded the Rockfeller Foundation Fellowship that allowed him to travel to places like Copenhagen, England, Switzerland and Germany.

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Career

For a brief duration in 1930, he got the opportunity to work under the guidance of renowned physicist Niels Bohr at the Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics. He also worked along with theoretical physicists Wolfgang Pauli and Paul Dirac. In 1931, he returned to Leningrad.

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Career

He was appointed the head of the department of theoretical physics at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute at Kharkiv in 1932. In addition to this he held the position as head of department in theoretical physics at the Kharkiv Engineer-Mechanical Institute and Kharkiv University.

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Career

In 1934 he was honored with Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Within a year he was officially designated as a professor.

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Career

In 1932, he is said to have computed the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star also known as the ‘Chandrasekhar limit’. However, he did not apply it to the white dwarf stars.

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Career

In 1946 he was awarded the Stalin prize, the state honor of Soviet Union. He was awarded the USSR State prize several times later.

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Awards & Achievements

In 1954, he was given the title ‘Hero of Socialist Labour’.

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Awards & Achievements

He received the Max Planck Medal from the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft in 1960.

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Awards & Achievements

He was honored with the Fritz London Prize in 1961.

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Awards & Achievements

In 1962, he was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics. The same year he received the Lenin Science Prize along with E.M. Lifshitz.

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Awards & Achievements