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October 4, 1916 (according to the new style) in Moscow was born an outstanding Soviet and then Russian theoretical physicist Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, professor, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1966), the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1953), Nobel Prize in Physics (2003). His authority in the scientific field was recognized throughout the world. He was a foreign member of the Danish Academy of Sciences (1977), the US National Academy of Sciences (1981) and the Royal Society of London (1987). The pinnacle of his scientific career was the Nobel Prize in Physics, which he received in 2003 together with A. Abrikosov and A. Leggett for his contribution to the development of the theory of superconductivity and superfluidity.
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg was born in Moscow into an intelligent Jewish family of an engineer, a water purification specialist, a graduate of the Riga Polytechnic School Lazar Efimovich Ginzburg and a doctor, a graduate of Kharkov University Augusta Veniaminovna Ginzburg (before her marriage, Wildauer). Vitaly Ginzburg was left without a mother very early, she died in 1920 from typhoid fever. After the death of his mother, his aunt, the younger sister of his mother, Rosa Veniaminovna Wildauer, took up the education of the future scientist. Until the age of 11, the boy was educated at home, mainly under the guidance of his father.
Only in 1927 did he enter the 4th grade of the 57th seven-year school, which he graduated in 1931, after which he continued his education at the FZU - a factory school. Later, he independently continued his education, working as a laboratory assistant in the X-ray laboratory, where he worked together with the future famous physicists V. A. Tsukerman and L. V. Altshuler, he was friends with the latter all his life. In 1934, Ginzburg immediately entered the 2nd year of Moscow State University, the Faculty of Physics, from which he graduated in 1938. In 1940, he completed his postgraduate studies at this faculty, successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis in the same year. He defended his doctoral dissertation already during the war years - in 1942. Later, the scientist recalled that he was not taken to the front, although he applied twice to volunteer. Starting from 1942, he worked in the theoretical department named after I. E. Tamm at the FIAN (Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences), subsequently holding the post of head of this department (from 1971 to 1988). At the same time, since 1945, Vitaly Ginzburg was a professor at Gorky State University, and since 1968, a professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. At this institute, he headed the Department of Problems of Physics and Astrophysics, which he himself created in 1968.
Scientific works and areas of work of the scientist were concentrated in various fields of physics, optics, astrophysics, radio astronomy. Even before the Great Patriotic War, Ginzburg was engaged in solving problems of quantum electrodynamics. During the war years, he, like most theoretical physicists, was engaged in solving applied problems related to defense topics: electromagnetic processes in layered cores (in relation to antennas), spreading of radio pulses upon reflection from the ionosphere (this scientific work was the beginning of many years of research into the propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasma).
In the 1940s, the scope of the scientist's interests included problems in the theory of elementary particles, which were associated with higher spins. The works of Vitaly Ginzburg in the field of the theory of radiation and propagation of light in liquids and solids are recognized as very important. After discovering and explaining the nature of the Vavilov-Chernikov effect, Ginzburg was able to construct a quantum theory of this effect, as well as a theory of superluminal radiation in crystals (1940).
In 1946, Ginzburg, together with I. M. Frank, became the creator of the theory of transition radiation, which occurs when a particle crosses the boundary of two media. He made a significant contribution to the phenomenology of ferroelectric phenomena, as well as to the theory of phase transitions, to crystal optics and the theory of excitons. Vitaly Ginzburg was one of the first scientists to realize the crucial role of X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. In particular, in the assessment of the proton-nuclear component of cosmic rays (just as radio astronomy today gives us an idea of their electronic component).
The scientist personally took part in many outstanding scientific projects of his time. In particular, he worked on the Soviet atomic project (Ginzburg owns one of the main ideas that formed the basis of the hydrogen bomb device). Being one of the creators of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, he never repented of this, as he acted out of patriotic considerations. He took part in an expedition to Brazil to carry out radio observations of the solar corona, and also created two large scientific schools in the country - one in Moscow (on space physics), the second in Gorky (on radio physics).
By his own admission, he became a theorist quite by accident. Vitaly Ginzburg recalled that he was weak in mathematics and believed that he was no theoretician and generally suffered from an inferiority complex. However, one day, with one of his ideas, he came to the well-known at that time Soviet scientist Igor Tamm, who showed genuine interest in the young specialist, literally infecting him with his enthusiasm. He asked Ginzburg to come in and tell him about his scientific work, this inspired the young scientist. In his own words, then he actually began a new life.
Vitaly Ginzburg was a well-known popularizer of science, he became the author of a number of books and articles on various problems of modern physics and astrophysics. Another topic of his publications was the activity of the Academy of Sciences as a whole, as well as the improvement of its charter and subjects, the election of new members of the Academy. In total, during his life he wrote about 400 scientific articles and books. He was rightfully considered one of the greatest scientific physicists of the 20th century, his works had a very great influence on the development of modern physics, and he himself made an invaluable contribution to world science. Ginzburg said that today sports have in common with science in that they are no longer associated with a particular country. More than one generation of Russian physicists grew up on the works written by him. At the same time, Ginzburg liked to say that his popular science articles, in terms of the style of presentation, were designed primarily for high school students, as well as people with higher non-physical education, which is why he supported the use of school mathematical formulas in such articles, with which the maximum range is familiar. readers.
Throughout his life, especially at its final stage, Ginzburg publicly fought against pseudoscience, even if such a struggle made many of his colleagues smile. Vitaly Ginzburg considered the fight against the juggling of near-scientific facts and various superstitions a matter of honor. And when most of the former communists shoveled in the church with candles, Ginzburg was practically the only one who always spoke openly about his commitment to atheism. The position of the scientist was extremely clear: faith is the right and free choice of every person, but he was always against the planting of religion, especially in schools. He was opposed to the spread of religious beliefs to secular institutions. According to him, the teaching of religion or the law of God in ordinary schools is absolutely unacceptable, but he was not against teaching the history of religion in schools.
Being an atheist, Vitaly Ginzburg denied the existence of God. For him, as a scientist, all knowledge was based on science, clear evidence, experimentation and analysis. “A miracle is contrary to science,” the physicist said. And since religions are based on belief in miracles, he could not come to terms with this. Ginzburg said: "I am an enemy of all miracles and do not believe that people can be resurrected, but I envy believers: they have consolation."
According to the memoirs of the contemporaries of the famous scientist, Ginzburg had exceptional intuition. So, in the middle of the 20th century, he, together with his colleague Lev Landau, was able to explain one of the very complex phenomena in the physical world - the phenomenon of superconductivity. This was done thanks to a unique guess. Scientists in the USSR were the first to approach the solution of the problem not from the position of the microworld, but from the point of view of macroprocesses. They proposed a fundamentally different view of the very nature of superconductivity. In the future, the Ginzburg-Landau theory was indeed confirmed, but this happened only after a few decades. An outstanding domestic scientist who was a student of Vitaly Ginzburg, Leonid Keldysh, said this about him: “It was impossible to learn the style of his work, since it was unique and entirely based on his amazing physical intuition and ability to find non-standard, unusual solutions and approaches.” Ginzburg himself liked to say that the fate of a person is nothing more than a chain of accidents, I am convinced of this again and again.
This chain of accidents and non-standard moves ultimately led him in 2003 to the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the development of the theory of superconductivity and superfluidity. At the same time, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the work, which in 1966 received the Lenin Prize. Then it was received by three - Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Gorkov, in 2003 the Nobel Committee for some reason excluded Lev Gorkov from this list. Ginzburg himself, who was a rather sharp-tongued person, commented on the receipt of the Nobel Prize in the following way: “Every scientist can become a Nobel laureate if he lives long enough.” By the time the award was presented, he was already 87 years old.
Academician Vitaly Ginzburg was married twice. His first wife, Olga Zamsha (from 1937 to 1946), was his classmate and also a physicist, in this marriage his only daughter, Irina, was born. His second wife was the experimental physicist Nina Ermakova, whom he met during the Great Patriotic War, he married her in 1946 and lived with her for the rest of his life. It is curious that both daughter Irina and Ginzburg's granddaughter Victoria also connected their lives with physics, having achieved certain successes in this area.
During his long life, Vitaly Ginzburg was awarded numerous state orders and medals. In particular, two orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1956 and 1986), the Order of Lenin (1954), two Orders of the Badge of Honor (1954 and 1975), the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (1996) - for outstanding scientific achievements and training of highly qualified personnel and the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" I degree (2006) - for an outstanding contribution to the development of domestic science and many years of fruitful activity. In 1946 he was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945".
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg passed away on the evening of November 8, 2009 in Moscow. He died after a long illness from heart failure, at that time the scientist was already 93 years old. The funeral of the Nobel laureate in physics took place on November 11, 2009, the scientist was buried in the capital, at the Novodevichy cemetery.
