Gamow, George

Gamow, George (1904-68), Russian American theoretical physicist, born in Odesa (Odessa), Ukraine, and educated at the University of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). His early work in nuclear physics was done at the universities of Leningrad, Göttingen, Copenhagen, and Cambridge. Gamow became professor of physics at Leningrad in 1931 but left the Soviet Union in 1933. The following year he moved to the United States, and he became a naturalized citizen in 1940. He was professor of theoretical physics at George Washington University (1934-56) and professor of physics at the University of Colorado (1956-68). Gamow made important contributions in a wide variety of fields, including radioactivity and cosmogony, as well as astrophysics and nuclear physics. He was one of the leading exponents of the theory of the evolutionary universe. He wrote many books for the general public, including The Birth and Death of the Sun (1940) and One, Two, Three ... Infinity (1947).