Semenov (on the right) and Kapitsa (on the left), portrait by Boris Kustodiev, 1921

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Russian Пётр Леонидович Капица) (July 9, 1894 – April 8, 1984) was a Soviet/Russian physicist who discovered superfluidity with some contribution from John F. Allen and Don Misener in 1937. Image File history File links Boris Kustodiyev. ... Image File history File links Boris Kustodiyev. ... Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (Никола́й Никола́евич Семёнов) (April 15 (April 3, Old Style), 1896 – September 25, 1986) was a Russian/Soviet physicist and chemist. ... Self-Portrait in front of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, 1912 Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (Борис Кустодиев, March 7, 1878 - May 28, 1927) was Russian art deco painter. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: (СССР)   listen?; tr. ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... Superfluidity is a phase of matter characterised by the complete absence of viscosity. ... John F. Allen (May 5, 1908-April 22, 2001 was a scientist. ... Don Misener was a scientist. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He was born in the city of Kronstadt. He worked in Cambridge for over 10 years and then went on a professional visit to the Soviet Union and was not allowed to return to Cambridge. 1888 map of Kronstadt bay Kronstadt (Russian: Кронштадт; also Kronshtadt, Cronstadt) is a strongly fortified Russian seaport town, located on Kotlin Island, near the head of the Gulf of Finland, at 59°5930 N and 29°4630 E. It lies 20 miles west of Saint Petersburg, of which... The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ...

Ernest Rutherford, whom Kapitsa had worked with at Cambridge, sold the Soviets Kapitsa's laboratory equipment. The Soviets then made Kapitsa form the Institute for Physical Problems with his equipment. Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, FRS (August 30, 1871 - October 19, 1937), called father of nuclear physics, pioneered the orbital theory of the atom notably in his discovery of rutherford scattering off the nucleus with his gold foil experiment. ... P.L. Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ...

Kapitsa won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for his work in low-temperature physics. He shared the prize with Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson (who won for unrelated work). List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Timeline of low-temperature technology 1877 - Raoul Pictet and Louis Paul Cailletet liquefy oxygen 1883 - Z.F. Wroblewski condenses experimentally useful quantities of liquid oxygen 1892 - James Dewar invents the vacuum-insulated, silver-plated glass Dewar flask 1895 - Carl von Linde files for patent protection of his process for liquefaction... Arno Allan Penzias (born April 26, American physicist. ... Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American physicist. ...

Kapitsa was eventually removed from his role as head of the institute he created, over his refusal to take part in the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb project. In a letter to Stalin, Kapitsa described the project's leader, Lavrenty Beria, as "like the conductor of an orchestra with the baton in hand but without a score". Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... Lavrenty Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (Russian: Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия) (29 March 1899 - 23 December 1953), Soviet politician and police chief, is remembered chiefly as the executor of Joseph Stalins Great Purge of the 1930s, although in fact he presided only over the closing stages of the Purge. ...

External link

• Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa: Official Nobel page