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Konstantin Petrzhak AI simulator
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Konstantin Petrzhak
Konstantin Antonovich Petrzhak (alternatively Pietrzak; Russian: Константи́н Анто́нович Пе́тржак, IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈpʲedʐək], Polish: [ˈpjɛt.ʂak]; 4 September 1907 – 10 October 1998), D.Sc., was a Russian physicist of Polish origin, and a professor of physics at the Saint Petersburg State University.
Receiving credit with Georgy Flyorov, a physicist, for the fundamental discovery of spontaneous fission of uranium in 1940, Petrzhak's career in physics was then spent mostly in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. Konstantin Petrzhak was among of Soviet pioneers in nuclear physics research.
Konstantin Petrzhak was born in Łuków, Poland in Russian Empire, on 4 September 1907. Other Russian documented sources noted his birthplace in Dombrovo in Kaliningrad with same birth date. There is very little information known about his early life and started working at the age of 12 (in 1919) as a painter at a glass-making factory in Malaya Vishera in Russia to provide income to his poor family. In 1928, Petrzhak was sent to attend the trade school, Rabfak, that was affiliated with the Leningrad State University, where he studied painting which remained his lifelong passion. Later, he used his talent in painting when he covered the plates of ionization chamber with uranium which later led to discovery of spontaneous fission. He also learned to play the music and was an amateur violinist and guitar player.
Peterzhak went to the Leningrad State University worked with the research group at the university in 1931. In November 1936, Pertzhak eventually earned his diploma certified under Igor Kurchatov from the Leningrad State University.
Konstantin Petrzhak married Galina Ivanovna Mitrofanova (b. 1918), also a radiochemist.
In 1934, Petrzhak found a job at the Khlopin Radium Institute located in the State University in Saint Petersburg (First Radium Institute), which was directed by Igor Kurchatov, a nuclear physicist.
Petrzhak remained associated with the Khlopin Radium Institute for the remainder of his life, and worked under the direction of Vitaly Khlopin and Igor Kurchatov where he eventually defended his thesis at the Ioffe Institute to obtain the Candidate of Sciences, titled: "Study of thorium and samarium radioactivity."
In 1939, Kurchatov was assigned research under Georgy Flyorov and Petrzhak to conduct investigation on uranium fission induced by neutrons of different energy levels, following Yakov Frenkel's theory of fission. Earlier, Flyorov and his assistant Tatiana I. Nikitinskaya had already made an ionization chamber to detect heavy particles, and were directed to increase the sensitivity of the ionization chamber. The team created a multilayer ionization chamber to detect decay products originating from the fission of uranium.
Konstantin Petrzhak
Konstantin Antonovich Petrzhak (alternatively Pietrzak; Russian: Константи́н Анто́нович Пе́тржак, IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈpʲedʐək], Polish: [ˈpjɛt.ʂak]; 4 September 1907 – 10 October 1998), D.Sc., was a Russian physicist of Polish origin, and a professor of physics at the Saint Petersburg State University.
Receiving credit with Georgy Flyorov, a physicist, for the fundamental discovery of spontaneous fission of uranium in 1940, Petrzhak's career in physics was then spent mostly in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. Konstantin Petrzhak was among of Soviet pioneers in nuclear physics research.
Konstantin Petrzhak was born in Łuków, Poland in Russian Empire, on 4 September 1907. Other Russian documented sources noted his birthplace in Dombrovo in Kaliningrad with same birth date. There is very little information known about his early life and started working at the age of 12 (in 1919) as a painter at a glass-making factory in Malaya Vishera in Russia to provide income to his poor family. In 1928, Petrzhak was sent to attend the trade school, Rabfak, that was affiliated with the Leningrad State University, where he studied painting which remained his lifelong passion. Later, he used his talent in painting when he covered the plates of ionization chamber with uranium which later led to discovery of spontaneous fission. He also learned to play the music and was an amateur violinist and guitar player.
Peterzhak went to the Leningrad State University worked with the research group at the university in 1931. In November 1936, Pertzhak eventually earned his diploma certified under Igor Kurchatov from the Leningrad State University.
Konstantin Petrzhak married Galina Ivanovna Mitrofanova (b. 1918), also a radiochemist.
In 1934, Petrzhak found a job at the Khlopin Radium Institute located in the State University in Saint Petersburg (First Radium Institute), which was directed by Igor Kurchatov, a nuclear physicist.
Petrzhak remained associated with the Khlopin Radium Institute for the remainder of his life, and worked under the direction of Vitaly Khlopin and Igor Kurchatov where he eventually defended his thesis at the Ioffe Institute to obtain the Candidate of Sciences, titled: "Study of thorium and samarium radioactivity."
In 1939, Kurchatov was assigned research under Georgy Flyorov and Petrzhak to conduct investigation on uranium fission induced by neutrons of different energy levels, following Yakov Frenkel's theory of fission. Earlier, Flyorov and his assistant Tatiana I. Nikitinskaya had already made an ionization chamber to detect heavy particles, and were directed to increase the sensitivity of the ionization chamber. The team created a multilayer ionization chamber to detect decay products originating from the fission of uranium.