Academician Semyon Gershtein passed away: the last student of Landau

“A rare talent and a very good character”

He was one of those who were the first in the world to receive the most intense electron beams in an accelerator, laid the foundation for the modern theory of the microworld – the Standard Model, and was one of the world’s leading experts in the field of neutrino physics. A world-famous physicist, organizer of science, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Semyon Solomonovich Gershtein passed away on February 20 at the age of 94.

The academician’s works in atomic physics, elementary particle physics, and the field theory of gravity gained worldwide fame. Already in his first scientific work, together with Yakov Borisovich Zel’dovich, Gershtein discovered a fundamental law of conservation in a weak vector interaction, similar to the law of conservation of electric charge. This result was of great importance for the creation of the Standard Model.

Among other achievements of Gerstein, in the field of cosmology and astrophysics, was the proposal of an original mechanism for the collective acceleration of solar cosmic rays.

Semyon Solomonovich was the initiator and participant of a number of new scientific trends not only in theoretical but also in experimental particle physics. He made an important contribution to the development of the research program at the Serpukhov accelerator at the Institute for High Energy Physics. On his initiative and calculations, for the first time in world practice, an intense electron beam was obtained with an energy of up to 46 GeV, inaccessible to the electron accelerators that existed at that time.

His career after graduating from Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, he began as a physics teacher in a rural school. Four students of that school subsequently defended doctoral dissertations, and more than 10, having graduated from the MEPhI branch, became employees of the Physics and Energy Institute in Obninsk.

Semyon Solomonovich taught physics for many years at the leading universities of the country: at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, at the branch of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University in Dubna, at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where he was an honored professor. There is such a remarkable fact in his biography that speaks of the love and appreciation on the part of his students: as a result of a secret ballot of MIPT students, he was awarded the honorary badge “Phystech Star”.

Among the former students of Gerstein are prominent scientists, for example, academician, ex-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov, Valery Kiselev, Yuri Pirogov and others.

Here is what Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny, who worked with him for several years, said about Semyon Solomonovich:

– He was an outstanding scientist with a very wide range of scientific interests. He belonged to that famous old school of Soviet scientists, which, unfortunately, no longer exists. Semyon Solomonovich was one of the last students of Landau, a colleague of Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, actively worked on the publication of his works, published a book of memoirs about him. Now many colleagues remember Gershtein as a surprisingly bright, benevolent person who sought to help everyone who turned to him. This is not always found among scientists of this level. You know, there is such a humorous saying: “Women’s character is spoiled by beauty, and men’s by talent.” So, he had a rare talent and a very good character.

Help “MK”. Academician Semyon Gershtein was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, the Order of Honor, the Certificate of Honor of the President of the Russian Federation, and the L.D. Landau, JINR International Prizes named after B.M. Pontecorvo and ITEP named after I.Ya. Pomeranchuk.

Farewell to Semyon Solomonovich Gershtein will take place on February 22, 2023 in the Ritual Hall of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Leninsky Prospekt, Building 32. The scientist will be buried in the city of Protvino near Moscow.