Oleg Firsov

Oleg Borisovich Firsov (, June 13 1915, Petrograd – April 2, 1998, Moscow) – was a Russian Soviet theoretical physicist known for his work on atomic interaction. He was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1972 for a series of work titled "Elementary processes and non-elastic scattering at nuclear collisions". Biography Firsov was the son of Boris Nilovich Firsov (1888–1920), one of the first Russian pilots, and Olga Vladimirovna von Walden (by mother Golitsyn, 1892–1920). He lost his parents at the age of 4, and grew up in an orphanage. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in physics from Leningrad State University in 1938, and remained there until the end of World War II. Staying in the city, he then moved to the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in Leningrad, where he obtained his PhD in 1947 under Yakov Frenkel's supervision. In 1955, he was invited by Igor Kurchatov to Moscow. He joined the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy where worked until 1994, when he became severely ill. He was married to the physicist Victoria Yevgenyevna Lichko (1915–2004). Their daughter is the composer Elena Firsova (b. 1950).