Visit of Frédéric Joliot-Curie to JINR in 1958
The column “The 20th century. Everyday life of a researcher” aroused genuine interest in our readers. We decided to keep on introducing you to unique historical photographs and archival documents of our Laboratory in our new “Chronograph” column.
The fabric of history weaves in a quaint way. In 1935, Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize. In 1936, they were invited to the USSR where they addressed the audience of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR at the first Mendeleev Readings.
In the same year 1936, Bruno Pontecorvo, a young man, was granted a scholarship of the Ministry of National Education of Italy and left for practical work to Paris, to the laboratory of the great scientists. He was studying nuclear isometry there.
In 1958, shortly before his death, Frédéric Joliot-Curie came to the USSR again. This time he visited the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. He met the founding fathers of the Institute M. G. Mescheryakov and D. I. Blokhintsev. The tour of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems for the great scientist was guided by V. P. Dzhelepov.
Frédéric Joliot-Curie met here his student Bruno Pontecorvo whose stay in the USSR was declassified in 1955. We do not know what the physicists spoke about. Several photographs of that meeting are left. We believe that some of them are published for the first time.
Source: The Archive of the Museum-Study of Bruno Pontecorvo at DLNP (JINR).
(Black and white photos of high quality by P. I. Zolnikov, the others by an unknown photographer.)
Chronograph
