ANDREI SAKHAROV

Andrei Sakharov was born on May 21,1921 in Moscow, Russia.

Andrei was born to Dmitry and Ekaterina Sakharov. His father taught physics and wrote popular scientific works and textbooks. His mother was a house wife.

Andrei was married two times. His first wife, Klavdia Vikhireva, who he had three children with, died in 1969. In 1971 he married his second wife, Yelena Bonner. They were married until his death in 1989.

School

• Andrei Sakharov received his doctorate from the P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute at the age of 26
• Andrei attended Moscow State University in 1938 to study physics.
• He was a professor at the Lebedev Institute from 1945 to 1980.

NUCLEAR BOMB

• Andrei was known for his ground-breaking research in Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion. That research led to the development of the Soviet's first hydrogen bomb.

HARD Work

• He became a full member of the Soviet Academy of Science in 1953.
• He founded the Committee of Human Rights in 1970.

AWARDS

• He received the Eleanor Roosevelt Peace Prize in 1973.
• In 1980 he won the Fritt Ord Prize. (But was stripped of all Soviet awards)
• He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his Human Rights work.
• In 1988, he was given the International Humanist Award by the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

INVENTION

• IN 1951, HE INVENTED AND TESTED THE FIRST EXPLOSIVELY PUMPED FLUX COMPRESSION GENERATORS, COMPRESSING MAGNETIC FIELDS BY EXPLOSIVES.

SUPPORT FOR PEACEFUL USE OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY

• In 1950, he proposed an idea for a controlled nuclear fusion reactor, the tokamak. It is still the basis for most of the work in the area.
• He also proposed confining extremely hot plasma for controlling thermonuclear fusion. This led to the development of the tokamak device.

DEATH

• Sakharov died of a heart attack at his home during a nap.
• According to the autopsy, Andrei died from Cardiomyopathy.