Abram Ioffe
Born	October 29, 1880(1880-10-29) Romny, Russian Empire
Died	October 14, 1960 Leningrad, USSR
Fields	Physics
Institutions	State Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology
Doctoral advisor	Wilhelm Roentgen
Doctoral students	Nikolay Semyonov

Abram Fedorovich (or Fyodorovich) Ioffe (Russian: Абра́м Фёдорович Ио́ффе, Ukrainian: Абрам Федорович Йоффе; October 29 [O.S. October 17] 1880 – October 14, 1960) was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist of Jewish origin born in Romny (Russian Empire, now part of Ukraine). He was awarded Stalin Prize in 1942, Lenin Prize in 1960 (posthumously), Hero of Socialist Labor in 1955.

[edit] Career overview

In the course of his career, Ioffe researched electromagnetism, radiology, features of crystals, physics of high impact, thermoelectricity, photoelectricity, and was a leading force in building new research laboratories for radioactivity, superconductivity, and nuclear physics. Many of these laboratories later became independent institutes.

Ioffe's pedagogical efforts resulted in the Soviet school of physics, his students include Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Yakov Dorfman, Pyotr Kapitsa, Isaak Kikoin, Igor Kurchatov, Yakov Frenkel, Nikolay Semyonov, Lev Artsimovich and others.

[edit] Biography

Ioffe was born into a middle-class Jewish family in small town of Romny, Russian Empire (now in Sumy region, Ukraine). After graduating from Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology in 1902, he spent two years as an assistant to Wilhelm Roentgen in his Munich laboratory. Ioffe completed his Ph.D. at Munich University in 1905. This same year Ioffe stated he saw the names of two authors, Einstein – Marić, on the Annus Mirabilis papers when they were submitted. This lends support to the claim that the work was a co-authorship between Einstein and his wife, though most historians of science do not think this is so.^[1]

Ioffe seminar in Polytechnical Institute, 1915. Sitting, left to right: Yakov Frenkel, Nikolay Semyonov, A.P. Yuschenko, Abram Ioffe, A.R. Shmidt, I.K. Bobr, K.F. Nestrukh, N.I. Dobronravov' Staying, left to right: Pyotr Kapitsa, Petr Lukirsky, M.V. Milovidova-Kirpichyova, Yakov Dorfman

After 1906 Ioffe worked in the Saint Petersburg (from 1924 Leningrad) Polytechnical Institute where he eventually became a professor. In 1911 he (independently of Millikan) determined the electron charge, using charged microparticles of metals balanced in electric field against gravity (published in 1913).^[2][3] In 1911 Ioffe converted to Lutheranism in order to marry a non-Jew.^[4] In 1913 he attained the title of Magister of Philosophy,^[5] in 1915 - Doctor of Physics. In 1918 he became a head of Physics and Technology division in State Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology. This division later became the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute.

Ioffe refused a job offer of directing the Soviet project to build the nuclear bomb on account of being too old. He saw great promise in the young Igor Kurchatov, and in 1942 placed him in charge of the first nuclear laboratory. During Stalin's campaign against the so-called "rootless cosmopolitans" (Jews), in 1950 Ioffe was made redundant from his position of the Director of Institute and from the Board of Directors. In 1952-1954 he headed the Laboratory of Semiconductors of Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which in 1954 was reorganized into Institute of Semiconductors.

Ioffe attained a US Patent on the piezoelectric effect.

[edit] Related

• The crater Ioffe on the Moon is named after him.
• Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute carries his name
• The Russian oceanographic and Polar research vessel Akademik Ioffe is named after him.

[edit] Patents

• U.S. Patent 1,807,292 "Translating device"

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Annotated bibliography for Abram Ioffe from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Short biography by the Russian Ioffe institute