Lev Shubnikov
Shubnikov, Lev Vasil’evich
Born Sept. 29, 1901; died 1945. Soviet physicist. Doctor of sciences in physics and mathematics.
After graduating from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1926, Shubnikov was sent to the Cryogenic Laboratory in Leiden. In 1930 he joined the staff of the Ukrainian Physicotechnical Institute. In 1931 he was made the director of the USSR’s first cryogenic laboratory, which was established at the Ukrainian Physicotechnical Institute. In 1934, Shubnikov became a professor at the University of Kharkov.
Shubnikov’s early scientific works dealt with the growth of single crystals of metals and—together with I. V. Obreimov—the plastic deformation and hardening of crystals. In 1930, together with the Dutch scientist W. de Haas, Shubnikov discovered the phenomenon of a periodic change in the resistance of bismuth as a function of a magnetic field at low temperatures. Shubnikov studied the magnetic properties of superconductors and of alloys as well as the temperature dependence of heat capacity at low temperatures. He brought about the transition of a substance from the paramagnetic state to the antiferromagnetic state.