What Do You Know About Oleg Lavrentiev?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aufbauwerk 2045
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Fusion reactor
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the life and contributions of Oleg Lavrentiev, a Russian scientist known for his work in nuclear fusion and related fields. Participants express interest in his background, scientific achievements, and the challenges of finding information about him, particularly in English. The conversation includes references to his historical context, academic journey, and the limited availability of resources regarding his work.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Historical
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant shares Lavrentiev's background as a Red Army soldier who studied physics and developed ideas for a hydrogen bomb and nuclear fusion reactor.
  • Another participant suggests searching for "Polywell" to find more information related to Lavrentiev.
  • Some participants mention finding papers co-authored by Lavrentiev, but express frustration over the scarcity of English-language resources.
  • Links to various articles and papers are provided, including references to Lavrentiev's contributions to thermonuclear synthesis and controlled nuclear fusion in the USSR.
  • Participants discuss the challenges of translating Russian documents and finding relevant information, including the use of Google Translate for accessing Russian articles.
  • There is mention of a video interview with Lavrentiev, highlighting his continued engagement with physics into his later years.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the limited availability of information about Lavrentiev and express a shared interest in uncovering more about his life and work. However, there is no consensus on the specifics of his contributions or the best resources for further research.

Contextual Notes

Participants note the difficulty in finding comprehensive information about Lavrentiev, particularly in English, and the presence of other individuals with similar names complicating searches. The discussion reflects a reliance on translations and external links to gather insights into his scientific contributions.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those researching the history of nuclear fusion, Russian scientific contributions, or individuals looking for biographical information about lesser-known scientists like Oleg Lavrentiev.

Aufbauwerk 2045
I am interested in the story of Oleg Lavrentiev. He was originally a Red Army soldier from a peasant family. He studied physics in his spare time. On one base there was a technical library and he was able to afford to subscribe to a Russian physics journal.

Lavrentiev developed ideas for a hydrogen bomb and also for a nuclear fusion reactor. He wrote a letter to Stalin and came to the attention of Andrei Sakharov.

Lavrentiev was not well known for most of his life, but he is now recognized as one of the fathers of nuclear fusion reactors. Eventually he was able to attend university and do some research during the Stalin era. Then there is a long gap in my information. He defended his dissertation on electrostatic traps not long before his 80th birthday.

It's hard to find more information about him in English. I am interested in his scientific work and also how he earned his living. Apparently he was reasonably comfortable but never part of the inner circle of nuclear scientists. Maybe there is someone here from Russia who knows more about him?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Have you searched for "Polywell"?
 
David Reeves said:
I have in the past but I was not specifically interested in Lavrentiev. But following your suggestion I did find one paper in English where he is a coauthor.

http://vant.kipt.kharkov.ua/ARTICLE/VANT_2003_1/article_2003_1_43.pdf
I've searched for him in a different language (and hoped my findings would have led me to bilingual websites), but as you said, there doesn't seem to be a lot about him. Often I simply ended up in some listings of memberships. And the fact there are a few famous persons with his name wasn't helpful either. I just thought his Fusionor might have been a more promising approach.
 
Some apparent background here - https://www.euro-fusion.org/newsletter/the-lost-story-of-the-russian-scientist-oleg-lavrentiev/

https://www.iter.org/newsline/56/1186

Thomas Dolan article in Physics Today (October 2011) - http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/PT.3.1306 (purchase required)

I found a paper citing -
Lavrent’ev O A 2012 On the history of thermonuclear synthesis in USSR, 2-nd edition (in russ.) (Kharkov, Ukraine: Kharkov Phys.-Tech. Institute (KhPhTI))

One may search on "O. Lavrent’ev", or Lavrent’ev with terms like Tokamak, etc. I suspect his articles are mostly in Russian or Ukrainian, so may search using Cyrillic text.

See first three references cited in
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/774/1/012132/meta
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: fresh_42
Astronuc said:
Some apparent background here - https://www.euro-fusion.org/newsletter/the-lost-story-of-the-russian-scientist-oleg-lavrentiev/

https://www.iter.org/newsline/56/1186

Thomas Dolan article in Physics Today (October 2011) - http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/PT.3.1306 (purchase required)

I found a paper citing -
Lavrent’ev O A 2012 On the history of thermonuclear synthesis in USSR, 2-nd edition (in russ.) (Kharkov, Ukraine: Kharkov Phys.-Tech. Institute (KhPhTI))

One may search on "O. Lavrent’ev", or Lavrent’ev with terms like Tokamak, etc. I suspect his articles are mostly in Russian or Ukrainian, so may search using Cyrillic text.

See first three references cited in
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/774/1/012132/meta

Thanks for the links. It's interesting that he was still working on physics while beating his opponents at chess in his eighties. Also he did not earn his doctorate until 2004, which means he was in his late seventies. I think this a fascinating human interest story.
 
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://ufn.ru/ufn01/ufn01_8/Russian/r018o.pdf&edit-text=&act=url
is a Google translation of
http://ufn.ru/ru/articles/2001/8/t/
(translated as "Lavrent'ev's proposal forwarded to the CPSU Central Committee on July 29, 1950"
at this paid-journal site http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1070/PU2001v044n08ABEH001122/ )

Similarly,
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://ufn.ru/ufn01/ufn01_8/Russian/r018m.pdf&sandbox=1
is applied to http://ufn.ru/en/articles/2001/8/r/similar.html
"Role played by O A Lavrent’ev in the formulation of the problem and the initiation of research into controlled nuclear fusion in the USSR"
http://ufn.ru/ufn01/ufn01_8/Russian/r018m.pdf

This technique might help decode documents in Russian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Lavrentiev
points to a video (in Russian)...
http://video.mail.ru/list/petr7/382/470.html
Is translation available for video yet? (Is there a new feature in Skype?)

Using https://www.google.com/search?q=Олег+Лаврентьев&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
led to
http://velikieberega.blogspot.com/2012/09/blog-post_7.html
https://translate.google.com/transl...m/2012/09/blog-post_7.html&edit-text=&act=url
(Google Chrome makes this translation process easier)
 
Last edited:
robphy said:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://ufn.ru/ufn01/ufn01_8/Russian/r018o.pdf&edit-text=&act=url
is a Google translation of
http://ufn.ru/ru/articles/2001/8/t/
(translated as "Lavrent'ev's proposal forwarded to the CPSU Central Committee on July 29, 1950"
at this paid-journal site http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1070/PU2001v044n08ABEH001122/ )

Similarly

...

Thank you. Apparently this is a free archive of articles going back to 1918.

The site is UFN (Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk) which is the same journal Lavrentiev subscribed to when he was in the army.

This is amazing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #11
robphy said:
I think that is the same video in my last post... slightly different URL... from wikipedia

Oh sorry. I got excited and missed that. My Russian is quite basic, but someone who really knows the language may like to post a translation?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Similar threads

High School How Does an IEC Fusion Reactor Work?
  • · Replies 19 ·
Replies
19
Views
6K
The Scientist as Hero - or not
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
4K
What exactly do you study in reactor physics?
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
5K
What Attracts You to Oregon?
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
8K
News What do you think about the deal with North Korea?
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
4K
What to Do if You Encounter a Possible Psychopath? Report?
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
4K
Graduate Hydrogen-Boron Plasma Toroid Fusion
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
7K
Graduate Hydrogen-boron High Density Plasma Toroid Fusion
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
4K
Graduate Read Physics Postdoc's Reflections on Education, Knowledge, & Life
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
4K