Viktor Ambartsumian

Viktor Ambartsumian
Վիկտոր Համբարձումյան
Виктор Амбарцумян
Ambartsumian in 1968
Born18 September [O.S. 5 September] 1908
Tiflis, Russian Empire (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia)
Died12 August 1996(1996-08-12) (aged 87)
Byurakan, Armenia
Resting placeByurakan Observatory
CitizenshipRussian Empire, Soviet Union, Armenia
Alma materLeningrad State University
Known forStellar association
Spouse
Vera Klochikhina
(m. 1930; died 1995)
Children4, including Rouben
AwardsStalin prize (1949,1950)
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1960)
Bruce Medal (1960)
ForMemRS (1969)
Lomonosov Gold Medal (1971)
National Hero of Armenia (1994)
State Prize of Russia (1995)
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics
InstitutionsLeningrad State University
Pulkovo Observatory
Yerevan State University
Byurakan Observatory
Thesis None[a]
Doctoral advisorAristarkh Belopolsky
Doctoral studentsViktor Sobolev, Benjamin Markarian, Grigor Gurzadyan
Signature

Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian[b] (Russian: Виктор Амазаспович Амбарцумян; Armenian: Վիկտոր Համազասպի Համբարձումյան, Viktor Hamazaspi Hambardzumyan; 18 September [O.S. 5 September] 1908 – 12 August 1996) was a Soviet Armenian[3] astrophysicist and science administrator. One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union.

Educated at Leningrad State University (LSU) and the Pulkovo Observatory, Ambartsumian taught at LSU and founded the Soviet Union's first department of astrophysics there in 1934. He subsequently moved to Soviet Armenia, where he founded the Byurakan Observatory in 1946. It became his institutional base for the decades to come and a major center of astronomical research. He also co-founded the Armenian Academy of Sciences and led it for almost half a century—the entire post-war period. One commentator noted that "science in Armenia was synonymous with the name Ambartsumian." In 1965 Ambartsumian founded the journal Astrofizika and served as its editor for over 20 years.

Ambartsumian began retiring from the various positions he held only from the age of 80. He died at his house in Byurakan and was buried on the grounds of the observatory. He was declared a National Hero of Armenia in 1994.

  1. ^ Lynden-Bell & Gurzadyan 1998, p. 25.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference McCutcheonEnc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Sullivan, Walter (26 August 1964). "NEW ERA AHEAD, ASTRONOMER SAYS; Photos of the Moon Cited at World Science Parley". The New York Times. p. 13. The great Soviet Armenian astronomer, Viktor A. Ambartsumian...


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