About Abraham Alikhanov
Abram Isaakovich Alikhanov (ahl-eek-ahn-off; born Abraham Alikhanian; 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1904 – 8 December 1970) was a Soviet experimental physicist of Armenian origin who specialized in particle and nuclear physics. He was one of the Soviet Union's leading physicists. Before joining the Soviet atomic bomb project, Alikhanov studied X-rays and cosmic rays. Between 1945 and 1968, he directed the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow, which was named after him in 2004. He led the development of both the first research and the first industrial heavy water reactors in the Soviet Union. They were commissioned in 1949 and 1951, respectively. Alikhanov was also a pioneer in Soviet accelerator technology. In 1934, he and Igor Kurchatov created a "baby cyclotron", the first "cyclotron" operating outside of Berkeley, California. He was the driving force behind the construction of the 70 GeV synchrotron in Serpukhov (1967), the largest in the world at the time. His brother, Artem Alikhanian, was based in the Armenian SSR and led the Yerevan Physics Institute for many years. In 1924 he transferred to the department of physics and mechanics, founded by Abram Ioffe. In 1929 he published his first paper on the use of X-ray analysis in investigating the crystal structure of the copper-aluminium alloy.
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