... the greatest triumph of the power of the human genius
is that man is capable of apprehending things beyond
the pale of his imagination.
L.D.Landau
From article "Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968)" by E.M.Lifshitz
In the spring of 1937 Landau moved to Moscow where he
became head of the Theoretical Division of the Institute
of Physical Problems which had not long before been
established under the direction of P.L.Kapitza. There he
remained to the end of his life; in this Institute, which
became a home to him, his varied activity reached its full
flowering. It was there, in a remarkable interaction with
experimental research, that Landau created what may be the
outstanding accomplishment of his scientific life-the
theory of quantum fluids.
It was there also that he received the numerous outward
manifestations of the recognition of his contributions. In
1946 he was elected a full Member of the USSR Academy of
Sciences. He was awarded a number of orders (including two
Orders of Lenin) and the honorific title of Hero of
Socialist Labour - a reward for both his scientific
accomplishments and his contribution to the implementation
of important practical State tasks. He was awarded the
State Prize three times and in 1962, the Lenin Prize.
There also was no lack of honorific awards from other countries.
As far back as 1951 he was elected member of the Danish
Royal Academy of Sciences and in 1956, member of the
Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences. In 1959 he became
honorary fellow of the British Institute of Physics and
Physical Society and in 1960, Foreign Member of the Royal Society of
Great Britain. In the same year he was elected to membership in the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1960 he became recipient of the F.
London Prize (United States) and of the Max Planck Medal (West Germany).
Lastly, in 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his
pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium".
Scientific papers were published in D. ter Haar (ed.),
Collected Papers of L.D.Landau (1965).
LANDAU The physicist and the men.
Recollections of L.D.Landau.
Edited by I.M.Khalatnikov. Translated from the Russian by J.B.Sykes.
Pergamon Press, (1989).
Biography of L.D.Landau
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