“To teach others – a genius is needed, a strong soul is needed”

March 28 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Academician Isaac Konstantinovich Kikoin, an outstanding physicist, a brilliant experimenter, co-author of the discovery together with M.M. Noskov of the photomagnetoelectric effect in semiconductors, the organizer of science.

Under his scientific guidance in the 1950s. in the USSR, a powerful gas-diffusion separating industry was created, which fully meets the country’s needs for enriched uranium. Kikoin is one of the founders of the Institute of Atomic Energy. I.V. Kurchatov (now the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”), from 1960 until the end of his life – his deputy head. But in the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, it is especially important to remember Isaac Konstantinovich as an outstanding teacher who understood “teaching” as his civic duty – for many years he taught at MEPhI and other universities, and the lines from Nekrasov’s poem “Poet and Citizen” refer to him in to the fullest.

In 1945 I.K. Kikoin came to work at the Moscow Mechanical Institute (now NRNU MEPhI) as a professor in the department of general physics, and in 1947 he headed the department of atomic physics here. From 1954 to 1977 I.K. Kikoin is a professor at the Department of General Physics at the Faculty of Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov.

Academician A.P. Alexandrov, at the celebration of Kikoin’s 60th birthday, said the following words about him: “This is a rare type of scientist who happily combines an outstanding theoretician, a talented engineer and a worker … It is somehow customary for us, appreciating the high merits of a person, to say that his work is at the level world standards. You can’t say the same about Kikoin. His work has always been above world standards.” And this applied to everything – whether he solved a scientific problem, whether he delved into the work of a factory or wrote a textbook for school.

Kikoin grew up in a teacher’s family, so his respect for the work of a school teacher and university teacher, his originality as a lecturer is especially understandable – by the way, he himself began to lecture at the age of 23. He, perhaps, like few other physicists at that time, understood that without the reproduction of scientific personnel, without the continuity of generations, science is doomed.

Since 1965 – Isaac Konstantinovich Chairman of the Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on school programs in physics. He wrote a textbook on molecular physics for physics departments, which became a classic of physical education, edited textbooks for grades 6 and 7, and together with his brother wrote a textbook for grades 8 and 9. In the process of working on textbooks, Isaac Konstantinovich consulted a lot with teachers of secondary schools, he himself conducted lessons there – relaxed, enthusiastic, bright, one can only envy the children who listened to him then. In the workshops of the Kurchatov Institute, demonstrations were made for these lessons, which then remained for the teachers. The textbook for grades 8-9 came out in several editions and was constantly refined by the authors.

“Stars of Heroes of the country, diplomas of academicians, doctors, engineers, categories of highly qualified specialists in any profession – all this is stored in a school bag, in textbooks, in the bright mind and kind heart of our mentors,” Kikoin said at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of his school in Pskov. “I always think with great admiration and gratitude of the daily feat of a school teacher.” He promised the 10th graders that year that he would come to their graduation, and he kept his word, for this he insisted on being discharged from the hospital a week earlier. Now this is hard to imagine.

Kikoin was one of the initiators of the creation of specialized physics and mathematics boarding schools (he himself lectured on physics for a long time at the A.N. Kolmogorov SASC), the world-famous physics and mathematics journal Kvant for schoolchildren (the first issue was published in 1970 , and Kikoin until the end of his life was the editor-in-chief and author of numerous articles for him) and the book series “Library “Quantum””, an active participant in the organization and holding of the All-Union Physics and Mathematics Olympiads, at which he himself presented prizes to schoolchildren. Thanks to him, the winners of the Olympiads got the right to enter universities without entrance exams.

Nearly 20 years old I.K. Kikoin gave work on the reform of physical education in our country. Everything he did in this area was not formal, but out of a high sense of duty and responsibility to humanity: “To make a mistake in a school textbook is much more dangerous than in a university textbook. The professor will correct the author’s mistake, but the teacher, somewhere in the outback, may not do this. Reproduction of such a mistake in five million copies can have serious negative consequences. Olympiads, textbooks, speeches in the press and on TV on educational issues, new forms of propaganda of scientific knowledge – none of these social “loads” reduced the intensity of his main work, all his enormous work in the “field of education” was carried out by him due to sleep and recreation.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries and students, Isaac Konstantinovich never missed an opportunity to encourage a young specialist, helped at the beginning of the journey and led him to independent publications. The young nuclear industry required a lot of qualified personnel, and he devoted himself to this work with all responsibility and completeness. After each lecture, students surrounded him, bombarding him with questions – and he always answered, with unfailing respect for the questioner. Kikoin found time to visit students in dormitories, told them about how he himself came to science, and at the same time found smart assistants and future scientists. “Invest your whole life in what you are doing now,” he addressed the youth and tirelessly supported efficient work.

For decades, Kikoin headed the SEC at MEPhI at the Department of Solid State Physics, the initiator of which he was in 1963. Recalls Alexander Yuryevich Rumyantsev, graduate of MEPhI in 1969, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. Sci., Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Minister of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy in 2001-2005, Advisor to the Director of Rosatom State Corporation: “I didn’t even think that this could be done” – this is how Isaac Konstantinovich spoke about my thesis work devoted to the study of the spontaneous line of helio -neon laser on the transition in the visible region and saturation of the spontaneous line when the infrared transition is turned on. It was this result that Kikoin drew attention to. A venerable scientist – his remarks and questions “betrayed” the highest professional of science, instantly penetrating the very essence of the subject of discussion. It cannot be said that he was a very open person – he was modest, laconic, but witty. I remember how, at the defense of Ilya Ovseevich Leipunsky (his diploma was devoted to the deflection of molecular beams in an electric field), Isaac Konstantinovich first praised this work very much, asked a few questions, and then, addressing everyone present, he asked: “Do you know what happened, after Stern and Gerlach began to deflect magnetic atomic beams in a magnetic field? All somehow hesitated, thinking that there was something not very good. “They were awarded the Nobel Prize!” Kikoin replied.

Later, as a young employee of the Kurchatov Institute, Rumyantsev (later he headed the Institute of Atomic Energy) had the opportunity to communicate with Kikoin already as a colleague. “Isaak Konstantinovich was a scientist with a broad scientific outlook and sometimes arranged in his office discussions of a scientific problem that interested him for a narrow circle, personally inviting a speaker and participants in the “seminar” as experts. Twice I was at this seminar as an expert, and once as a speaker, – continues Rumyantsev. – He was generally a very erudite person, he was interested in art, he invited artists to his closed seminars – I remember that Sergei Yursky performed this way with a program based on the stories of Zoshchenko and Averchenko, there were other artists – Isaac Konstantinovich talked with them for a long time about various directions in art. Physicist’s Day was always celebrated at Kurchatovsky, celebrating it with costumed performances, and Kikoin and Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov, director of the Institute, actively participated in this, dressed in stage costumes, put on make-up and performed various cheerful “numbers” on the theme of physics. All this is unforgettable, and of course, we, the growing scientific generation, were filled with a sense of great pride that we not only worked side by side, but also had the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with such people.”

“He lived a happy life” was the title of Kikoin’s article about Kurchatov in the Kvant magazine. The same can be said about him himself – Kikoin, like Kurchatov, “believed in the boundless power of science” and infected young people with this faith.

According to NRNU MEPhI