Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov

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Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov (Russian: Сергей Иванович Вавилов; 24 March [O.S. 12 March] 1891–January 25, 1951) was a Soviet physicist, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences from July 1945 until his death. His brother Nikolai Vavilov was a famous Russian geneticist.

Vavilov founded the Soviet school of physical optics, known by his works in luminescence.

He was a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1932, Head of the Lebedev Institute of Physics (since 1934), a chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a member of the Supreme Soviet from 1946 and a recipient of four Stalin Prizes (1943, 1946, 1951, 1952).

He wrote on the lives and works of great thinkers, such as Lucretius, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Mikhail Lomonosov, Michael Faraday, and Pyotr Lebedev, among others.

There is a ship named after him, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. She is a research vessel that can carry approximately 150 crew and passengers, and is a Class-1A icebreaker which regularly makes trips to Antarctica.

[edit] External links

• Sergei Vavilov: luminary of Russian physics
• Letter from Vavilov to Lavrenty Beria concerning the state of Soviet astronomy, requesting the release of an astronomer