Commemorating S. M. Polikanov
Today, it is the 95th birthday of a renowned scientist, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (ASU), Sergey Mikhailovich Polikanov.
In 1950, after graduating from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, S. M. Polikanov started his career at the Institute of Atomic Energy where he worked under the guidance of G. M. Flerov. Since 1957, the scientist continued working with G. M. Flerov at the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
Since 1970, S. M. Polikanov worked at the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems where he headed a department.
He is mostly known as one of the discoverers of spontaneously fissioning isomers of heavy nuclei. In 1974, he was elected an ASU corresponding member in the nuclear physics section.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin, was a laureate of the Lenin Prize.
In 1978, he was deprived of the state awards, the degree of Doctor of Sciences and the ASU corresponding member rank as a result of disagreement with scientific functionaries and later with the Soviet leadership. In October 1978, he got the exit permit and emigrated from the USSR. He worked abroad at the Niels Bohr Institute (Denmark), CERN and the Institute for Heavy Ion Research (Germany).
He died in 1994.
The author of the book “Break-Up: Notes of a Nuclear Physicist”.
S. M. Polikanov (GSI, Darmstadt) and A. A. Tyapkin are talking. Photo from the JINR Archive
Chronograph
