Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was a Soviet
physicist and mathematician who was jointly awarded ‘Nobel Prize in
Physics’ in 1958 with fellow physicists Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and
Ilya Frank, for elucidating along with Frank the science behind the
Cherenkov radiation or the ‘Cherenkov effect’. It is a unique form of
electromagnetic radiation, a phenomenon discovered by Cherenkov, which
says, when charged particles like electrons travel with high velocity,
faster than light, through a particular medium, a slight bluish light is
emitted. Tamm was also reputed for his initial research work on
specific types of electron bonding on the surfaces of crystalline
solids, the concept of Tamm states. This work of Tamm was later
significantly applied in the development of solid-state semiconductor
devices. He held the chair of theoretical physics at the ‘Moscow State
University’ following a stint as a lecturer in its physics department.
He also served for decades as the head of the theoretical division of
the ‘Lebedev Physical Institute’ (commonly abbreviated as ‘FIAN’), of
the ‘Russian Academy of Sciences’, Moscow, one of the oldest research
institutes in Russia. He also contributed towards devising the first
thermonuclear bomb of the Soviet Union when he and his team from ‘FIAN’
worked under physicist Yuly Khariton’s direction on the project in a
secret installation known as Arzamas-16. He was conferred the title
‘Hero of Socialist Labour’ in 1953.
Childhood & Early Life
He
was born on July 8, 1895, in Vladivostok, Russian Empire to Evgenij
Tamm and his wife Olga Davydova. His father was an electrical engineer
who worked in Yelizavetgrad (presently Kirovohrad, Ukraine), designated
to build and manage water systems and electric power stations.
Awards & Achievements
He
received the ‘Nobel Prize in Physics’ in 1958 jointly with Pavel
Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for explaining the real cause
behind the Cherenkov radiation.
Personal Life & Legacy
- In September 1917 he married Nataliya Shuyskaya. The couple was blessed with two children - a daughter Irina, born in 1921 and a son, Evgeny, born in 1926. Irina was a chemist and Evgeny was a physicist also renowned as a mountain climber. In 1982 Evgeny led the Soviet Everest expedition.
- Tamm was an atheist.
- On April 12, 1971, he passed away in Moscow at the age of 75 years.
Trivia
The
shallow lunar impact crater, situated to the west-northwest of the
large and much more prominent crater called ‘Chaplygin’, is named after
him as ‘Tamm’.
