Isaak Iakovlevich Pomeranchuk

Born May 7 (20), 1913, in Warsaw; died Dec. 14, 1966, in Moscow. Soviet theoretical physicist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1964; corresponding member, 1953).

Pomeranchuk graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1936. From 1940 to 1943 he was affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and from 1943 to 1946 with the Institute of Atomic Energy. In 1946 he joined the staff of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics and also became a professor at the Moscow Physical Engineering Institute.

Pomeranchuk obtained fundamental results in the theory of the thermal conductivity of dielectrics, the theory of metals at low temperature, and the theory of quantum fluids—for example, he predicted the Pomeranchuk effect. He proposed a method of producing extremely low temperatures. Pomeranchuk made an important contribution to the theory and development of the first nuclear reactors in the USSR. His work on the theory of strong interactions—in particular, the Pomeranchuk theorem— played an important role in the development of high-energy physics.

Pomeranchuk received the State Prize of theUSSR in 1950 and 1952. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.