Georgy Flyorov - Biography

Biography

Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now known as the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University) and majored in thermal physics and nuclear physics.

He is known for writing to Stalin in April 1942 and pointing out the conspicuous silence within the field of nuclear fission in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Flyorov's urgings led to the eventual development of the USSR's own atomic bomb project.

He was one of the discoverers of spontaneous fission. He also claims as his discovery two transition metal elements: seaborgium and bohrium.

He founded the Flyorov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna in 1957, and acted as director there until 1989. Also during this period, he chaired the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

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