Anatoly Alexandrov (physicist)
Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov, also known as A.P Alaexandrov, was a Russian physicist, director of the Kurchatov Institute, academician and president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Anatoly Alexandrov was born on 13 February 1903 into the family of a prominent judge in the town of Tarashcha, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire.
After his graduation in 1930, he was invited by Abram Ioffe to join him in Leningrad.
Alexandrov became prominent during World War II, when he devised in collaboration with Igor Kurchatov a method of demagnetizing ships to protect them from German naval mines. The method was effective by the end of 1941 and was in active use through the end of the war and afterwards. Both Alexandrov and Kurchatov worked at the Ioffe Institute by that time. Alexandrov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1962.
Described by colleagues as a brilliant scientist and organizer, he was deeply affected by the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear accident in history. It killed at least 32 people and caused widespread radioactive contamination. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated as a result. The accident subsequently prompted the Soviet Government to review and suspend the ambitious nuclear power program. As principal designer of the RBMK reactor that exploded at Chernobyl, Alexandrov refused to concede that a design flaw contributed to disaster.
Alexandrov died of cardiac arrest on 3 February 1994 in Moscow.Honours and awards
