Landau, Lev Davidovich
Landau, Lev Davidovich
(lyĕf dəvē`dəvĭch ləndou`), 1908–68, Soviet physicist, b. Baku, Azerbaijan. A child prodigy in mathematics, he entered Baku Univ. at 14; at 21 he received a doctorate from the Univ. of Leningrad. In 1934 he worked with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1937 he became head of the theoretical department of the USSR Academy of Sciences. A key figure in Soviet space technology, he helped make the first Soviet atomic bomb. For his contributions to low-temperature physics he was voted the Fritz London Award at the 1960 International Congress of Physics, held in Toronto. For his pioneering studies on gases, especially his development of a mathematical theory of superfluiditysuperfluidity,tendency of liquid helium below a temperature of 2.19°K; to flow freely, even upward, with little apparent friction. Helium becomes a liquid when it is cooled to 4.2°K;.
..... Click the link for more information. that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below −455.73°F; (−270.96°C;), he received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics.