Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology

The National Science Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) (Ukrainian: Національний науковий центр «Харківський фізико-технічний інститут»), formerly the Ukrainian Physics and Technology Institute (UPTI) is the oldest and largest physical science research centre in Ukraine.[1] Today it is known as a science center as it consists of several institutes that are part of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology science complex.

National Science Center, Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology

History

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Group photo of the KIPT physicists in 1934
 
Commemoratve plaque about the nuclear fission conducted in 1932

The institute was founded on 30 October 1928, by the Government of Soviet Ukraine[2] on an initiative of Abram Ioffe[3]: 3  on the northern outskirts of Kharkiv (in khutir Piatykhatky) as the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology for the purpose of research on nuclear physics and condensed matter physics.

From the moment of its creation, the institute was run by the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry.

On 10 October 1932 the first experiments in nuclear fission in the Soviet Union were conducted here. The Soviet nuclear physicists Anton Valter, Georgiy Latyshev, Cyril Sinelnikov, and Aleksandr Leipunskii used a lithium atom nucleus. Later the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology was able to obtain liquid hydrogen and helium. They also constructed the first triple coordinate radar station, and the institute became a pioneer of the Soviet high vacuum engineering which was developed into an industrial vacuum metallurgy.

During Stalin's Great Terror in 1938, the institute suffered the so-called UPTI Affair: three leading physicists of the Kharkiv Institute (Lev Landau, Yuri Rumer and Moisey Korets) were arrested by the Soviet secret police.[4]

The Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology was the "Laboratory no. 1" for nuclear physics, and was responsible for the first conceptual development of a nuclear bomb in the USSR.[3]: 4 

It was damaged by shelling during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[5][6] resulting in heavy damage to the Neutron Source nuclear facility.[7] [8] It is guarded by the 4th State Objects Protection Regiment.[9]

Directors

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Important institutes

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Science and education institutions in Pyatykhatky.

Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology

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Other institutes

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Notable alumni

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "History | ННЦ ХФТИ". www.kipt.kharkov.ua. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  2. ^ Taravarov, Ya. Landau in a field of negative values (Ландау в области отрицательных значений). Vokrug Sveta. 15 December 2008.
  3. ^ a b Shifman, M., ed. (2016). "Introduction: Information and Musings". Physics in a mad world. Translated by Manteith, James. World Scientific.
  4. ^ (in Ukrainian) Landau, atom splitting and secret bunker. Yak in the crackdown of Stalinist repressions in Kharkiv they set up "Kremnіevu Valley", Ukrayinska Pravda (12 February 2021)
  5. ^ Grant, Andrew (7 March 2022). "Prominent Ukrainian physics institute imperiled by Russian attacks". Physics Today. 2022 (2): 0307a. Bibcode:2022PhT..2022b.307.. doi:10.1063/PT.6.2.20220307a. S2CID 247368893.
  6. ^ "Russian Shelling Damaged a Nuclear Research Facility, Ukraine Says". www.vice.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. ^ Duszyński J, McNutt M, Zagorodny A (13 June 2022). "A future for Ukrainian science". Science (Editorial.) (First release ed.). doi:10.1126/science.add4088.
  8. ^ (in English) Update 125 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine, International Atomic Energy Agency (11 November 2022)
  9. ^ "Журналист «ПВ» побывала в самой большой воинской части Украины". Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  10. ^ J. N. Rjabinin, L.W. Schubnikow, Magnetic properties and critical currents of superconducting alloys, Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, vol .7, no.1, pp. 122-125, 1935.
  11. ^ J. N. Rjabinin, L.W. Schubnikow, Magnetic properties and critical currents of supra-conducting alloys, Nature, 135, no. 3415, pp. 581-582, 1935.
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50°05′24″N 36°15′00″E / 50.090°N 36.250°E / 50.090; 36.250