Background

George Gamow was born on March 4, 1904, in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). His father taught Russian language and literature in high school, and his mother taught geography and history at a school for girls.

Education

Gamow became interested in physics at an early age, and when he was 18 he enrolled in the physico-mathematical faculty at Novorossia University in Odessa.

After a year he transferred to the University of Leningrad, from which he eventually received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1928.

Gamow studied under Alexander Friedmann for some time in Leningrad, until Friedmann's early death in 1925. He aspired to do his doctoral thesis under Friedmann, but had to change dissertation advisors. At the University, Gamow made friends with three other students of theoretical physics, Lev Landau, Dmitri Ivanenko, and Matvey Bronshtein. Together, the group of four called themselves the Three Musketeers.

Career

Following his graduation, Gamow moved to Göttingen, Germany, where he conducted research on quantum theory, focusing on the atomic nucleus.

From 1928 to 1931, Gamow worked at the Theoretical Physics Institute (now Niels Bohr Institute) of the University of Copenhagen, briefly interrupting his time at the Institute during collaborations with Ernest Rutherford at Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University.

In 1928, Gamow proposed a solution to the theory of alpha decay based on quantum tunneling, working together with Nikolai Kochin to develop the explanation.

During his work at the University of Copenhagen and the Cavendish Laboratory, Gamow first proposed the "liquid drop" model of atomic nuclei.

He worked at the Radium Institute in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), collaborating with Lev Mysovskii and Igor Kurchatov to design Europe’s first cyclotron between 1931 and 1933.

In 1933, Gamow was invited to the 7th Solvay Conference in Brussels and traveled there together with his wife. The couple was helped by other European physicists, like Marie Curie, and thus they managed to prolong their stay in the city.

He became a professor at George Washington University and immigrated with his wife to the United States the following year.

Then he published a paper together with his former student and cosmologist Ralph Alpher, which introduced a reworking of the Big Bang theory.

In the 1950s, following Francis Crick and James Watson’s discovery of the structure of DNA, George focused his work on biochemistry and genetics.

Between 1954 and 1956, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley as a visiting professor.

This eminent theoretical physicist taught at the University of Colorado Boulder, largely shifting his focus toward teaching and science writing from 1956 until his death.

George Gamow died on August 19, 1968, at age 64 in Boulder, Colorado and was buried there in Green Mountain Cemetery.

Achievements

• George Gamow was a prominent nuclear physicist and cosmologist, who was one of the foremost advocates of the big-bang theory, according to which the universe was formed in a colossal explosion that took place billions of years ago. In addition, his work on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) made a basic contribution to modern genetic theory.
  
  The physics department tower at the University of Colorado at Boulder is named for him.

Works

More photos

• Other Work

  • One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science (Dover Books on Mathematics)
  • Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory
  • The New World of Mr Tompkins: George Gamow's Classic Mr Tompkins in Paperback
  • Mr Tompkins in Paperback (Canto Classics)
  • Gravity
  • The Birth & Death of the Sun: Stellar Evolution and Subatomic Energy
  • Physics: Foundations and Frontiers
  • My World Line : An Informal Autobiography
  • The Moon
  • The Creation of the Universe (Dover Science Books) Revised, George Gamow - Amazon.com

Views

Quotations: "When, in school, they were teaching algebra, I was studying differential equations at home."

"I learned Einstein's theory of relativity when I was still in school. I simply got interested."

"All kinds of physical considerations become senseless when we try to apply them to distances smaller than 10 -13 centimeter."

"I feel that matter has properties which physics tells you."

Membership

George Gamow was a member of numerous scientific societies, among them the American Physical Society, the Washington Philosophical Society, the International Astronomical Union, and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

• 

  In 1931, Gamow was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR at age 28 – one of the youngest in the history of this organization.

  Russian Academy of Sciences , Russia

  1931

• In 1956, George Gamow became one of the founding members of the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), which later reformed teaching of high-school physics in the post-Sputnik years.

  Physical Science Study Committee , Massachusetts

  1956

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "If contribution in life is measured by the influence of a person's best ideas, then George Gamow's contribution has been immense. He explained radioactive decay, described reaction mechanisms and rates in the interior of stars, proposed how the elements were made, and suggested how DNA might provide the code for protein synthesis. Those topics have evolved into major fields of science..." (Professor William C. Parke)
  
  "Gamow was fantastic in his ideas. He was right, he was wrong. More often wrong than right. Always interesting; … and when his idea was not wrong it was not only right, it was new." (Edward Teller)

Connections

In 1931, George Gamow married Lyubov Nikolaevna Vokhmintseva. The couple had a son. In 1956, he divorced his first wife.

Gamow later married Barbara Perkins in 1958.

Father:

Anton Mikhaylovich Gamow

Anton Mikhaylovich Gamow was a teacher of Russian language and literature at a local high school.

Mother:

Aleksandra Arsenevna Gamow (Lebedintseva)

Aleksandra Arsenevna Gamow (Lebedintseva) was a teacher of history and geography at a girls’ school.

Wife:

Lyubov Nikolaevna Gamow (Vokhmintseva)

Wife:

Barbara Perkins Gamow

Barbara Merrihew Perkins "Perky" Gamow was an American publicity manager, editor and translator.

Son:

Igor Gamow

Friend:

Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist, who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory.

Friend:

Lev Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau was a Soviet physicist, who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.

Friend:

Dmitri Ivanenko

Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko was a Soviet-Ukrainian theoretical physicist, who made great contributions to the physical science of the twentieth century, especially to nuclear physics, field theory, and gravitation theory.

Friend:

Matvei Bronstein

Matvei Petrovich Bronstein was a Soviet theoretical physicist, a pioneer of quantum gravity, author of works in astrophysics, semiconductors, quantum electrodynamics and cosmology.

colleague:

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, was a New Zealand-born British physicist, who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics.

colleague:

Nikolai Kochin

Nikolai Evgrafovoch Kochin was a Russian and Soviet mathematician, specialising in applied mathematics, and especially fluid and gas mechanics.

colleague:

Lev Mysovskii

colleague:

Igor Kurchatov

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was a Russian and Soviet nuclear physicist, who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project.

References

• George Gamow: The Whimsical Mind Behind the Big Bang
• George Gamow: The Birth of Planets with Guided Notes (The Arm Chair Astronomy Series Book 3), Patrick Bruskiewich - Amazon.com
• Ordinary Geniuses: Max Delbruck, George Gamow, and the Origins of Genomics and Big Bang Cosmology
• The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins and George Gamow
• Cosmology, fusion & other matters: George Gamow memorial volume
• The Galloping Gamows eBook: Peter Garrity: Kindle Store
• Vol. 129 - The George Gamow Symposium
• Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix