Igor Evgenievich
Tamm
1895-1971
Igor Evgenievich Tamm was an outstanding Soviet theoretical physicist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953), Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (1958), and one of the founders of modern theoretical physics in the USSR. He was born on July 8, 1895, in Vladivostok into the family of an engineer. In 1918, he graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow University. He began his scientific career under the guidance of L.I. Mandelstam. From 1934 until the end of his life, he headed the Theoretical Division of the Lebedev Physical Institute (FIAN) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Tamm’s main scientific achievements relate to quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, radiation theory, and nuclear physics. In 1930, he developed the quantum theory of light scattering in crystals. In 1932, together with S.P. Shubin, he created the theory of the photoelectric effect in metals. His most famous work was carried out in 1937 together with I.M. Frank: they created a complete theory of the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect-radiation emitted when a charged particle moves through a medium at a speed exceeding the phase velocity of light in that medium. For the discovery and theoretical explanation of this effect, I.E. Tamm, I.M. Frank, and P.A. Cherenkov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1958. During the Great Patriotic War, while evacuated in Sverdlovsk, Tamm continued his theoretical research and directed the work of his department. In 1945, he invited A.D. Sakharov to join FIAN’s postgraduate program. In 1950, together they proposed the principle of magnetic plasma confinement for achieving controlled thermonuclear fusion, which laid the foundation for the tokamak concept-a device that became the main direction in fusion research. In the post-war years, Tamm made significant contributions to the development of elementary particle theory, particularly proposing a method for calculating particle interactions at high energies (the Tamm-Dankov method). He authored the fundamental textbook “Fundamentals of the Theory of Electricity” (first edition in 1929), which was reprinted many times and became a classic text for physics students. I.E. Tamm founded a major scientific school; among his students were A.D. Sakharov, V.L. Ginzburg, M.A. Markov, E.L. Feinberg, and other renowned physicists. He was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor (1953), two Stalin Prizes (1946, 1953), the Lenin Prize (1958), and the M.V. Lomonosov Grand Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1967). He was elected a foreign member of several academies of sciences. One of the squares in Moscow bears the name of this great scientist.
Address: Moscow, Akademika Tamma Square
