Aleksandr Leipunskii

Who was Aleksandr Leipunskii?

Aleksandr Il'ich Leipunskii was a Polish-born Russian physicist.

He was born in the small village of Dragli, Poland. In 1921, he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1926. He then joined the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute, where he studied atomic interactions with electrons and molecules. In 1930, he began research into nuclear physics. He helped organize the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in Kharkov and became its director. In 1934, he was sent to England for a year as a visiting researcher at the Rutherford Laboratory. He became head of the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences, UkrSSR, in 1941 and held that post until 1949.

Following the war, he played a significant role in the development of nuclear power in the Soviet Union. In particular, he pioneered the development of Soviet fast breeder reactor technology. In 1963, he was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor. The A. I. Leipunsky Institute of Physics and Power Engineering in Obninsk is named after him.