Yuri Oganessian facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yuri Oganessian
|
|
|---|---|
| Юрий Оганесян | |
Oganessian in 2016
|
|
| Born |
Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian
14 April 1933 Rostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
|
| Citizenship | Soviet Union (1933–1991) Russia (1991–present) Armenia (2018–present) |
| Alma mater | Moscow Engineering Physics Institute |
| Known for | Co-discoverer of the heaviest elements in the periodic table; element oganesson named after him |
| Awards | Lomonosov Gold Medal (2017) Demidov Prize (2019) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
| Institutions | Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research |
Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian (born 14 April 1933) is a famous nuclear physicist from Armenia and Russia. He is best known for his work on finding new, very heavy chemical elements.
He has helped discover many elements on the periodic table. Yuri Oganessian took over from Georgy Flyorov as the head of the Flyorov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in 1989. This lab is part of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. He is now its scientific director. The heaviest element known, called oganesson, is named after him. This is a very special honor, as it's only the second time an element has been named after someone who was still alive!
Contents
About Yuri Oganessian
Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian was born on April 14, 1933. His birthplace was Rostov-on-Don in what was then the Soviet Union. His parents were Armenian. His father was from a place called Igdir, and his mother was from Armavir.
In 1939, his family moved to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. His father, Tsolak, was an engineer who worked with heat (a thermal engineer). He was asked to help with a factory that made rubber in Yerevan. When World War II started, his family decided to stay in Yerevan because Rostov was taken over by German forces. Yuri finished school in Yerevan. When he was young, he wanted to be a painter.
Oganessian was married to Irina Levonovna, who was a violinist and music teacher. They had two daughters together. As of 2017, his daughters live in the United States. Yuri Oganessian can speak Russian, Armenian, and English.
His Work in Science
Yuri Oganessian finished his studies at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1956. He wanted to work at a big atomic energy institute in Moscow. But there were no open spots there. So, he joined Georgy Flyorov's team at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, near Moscow.
In 1989, he became the director of the Flyorov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR. He held this job until 1996. After that, he became the scientific director of the lab.
Finding New Superheavy Elements
In the 1970s, Oganessian came up with a new way to make superheavy elements. He called it the "cold fusion" method. This method was very important for finding elements from 106 to 113. It's important to know that this "cold fusion" is not the same as the idea of making energy from cold fusion.
From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Oganessian's team at JINR worked with scientists in Germany. Together, they discovered six new chemical elements. These were elements 107 to 112: bohrium, meitnerium, hassium, darmstadtium, roentgenium, and copernicium.
He later developed another method called "hot fusion." This method also has nothing to do with making energy. This new technique helped discover elements 113 to 118. These discoveries completed the seventh row of the periodic table. To make these elements, scientists shot tiny particles of calcium at heavier, radioactive elements. They used a special machine called a cyclotron to do this.
The elements found using this "hot fusion" method include:
- Nihonium (discovered in 2003)
- Flerovium (discovered in 1999)
- Moscovium (discovered in 2003)
- Livermorium (discovered in 2000)
- Tennessine (discovered in 2009)
- Oganesson (discovered in 2002)
How He Is Recognized
Some scientists call Yuri Oganessian the "grandfather of superheavy elements." He has made three major scientific discoveries. He has also written a book and more than 300 scientific papers. He even has 11 inventions to his name.
Many people believe that Oganessian deserves a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This includes Alexander Sergeev, who used to be the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Element Oganesson
In early 2016, people started guessing that one of the new superheavy elements would be named after Oganessian. In November 2016, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially announced it. Element 118 would be named oganesson to honor him.
This element was first seen in 2002 at JINR. A team of Russian and American scientists worked together on this. Oganessian led this team, which included scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Before this, only one other element, seaborgium, was named after a living person. That person was Glenn T. Seaborg. Since Seaborg passed away in 1999, Yuri Oganessian is the only person alive today who has an element named after him.
Awards and Honors
Yuri Oganessian has received many important awards and honors for his work.
- In 1990, he became a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
- In 2003, he became a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- He has received honorary degrees from several universities, including Goethe University Frankfurt (2002) and Yerevan State University (2022).
- In 2019, he was made an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
Some of his top awards include:
- Lenin Komsomol Prize (1967)
- USSR State Prize (1975)
- Kurchatov Medal (1989)
- Lise Meitner Prize (2000)
- State Prize of the Russian Federation (2010)
- Lomonosov Gold Medal (2018)
- Demidov Prize (2019)
- UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences (2021)
Recognition in Armenia
In July 2018, Yuri Oganessian was given Armenian citizenship. He is also involved with science organizations in Armenia. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). He also leads the international scientific board of the Alikhanian National Science Laboratory in Yerevan.
In 2017, Armenia's postal service, HayPost, released a postage stamp honoring Oganessian. In 2022, the Central Bank of Armenia made a special silver coin. This coin was dedicated to Oganessian and the element oganesson. In April 2022, he was named an honorary professor at Yerevan State University.
See also
In Spanish: Yuri Oganesián para niños
