Semenov Nikolai is a famous Soviet chemist who is one of the founders of chemical physics. Also, our hero was an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Young years
The future scientist was born in the Russian city of Saratov in April 1896. Nikolai graduated from the Saratov Real School in 1913, and his name was entered on the golden plaque. During training, the guy met Vladimir Karmilov, his teacher and friend. It was he who supported Semenov's zeal to devote his life to science. They carried their friendship through the years. In the summer of 1913, Semenov Nikolai entered the Petrograd University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Nikolai Alexandrovich Semenov was a military man and thought that his son would also devote himself to this career. When he entered the university, a split occurred in the family, which lasted several years. Starting from the second year of study, the young man began to engage in serious research under the guidance of A. Ioffe. He also wrote several scientific papers about atoms and molecules. In 1917 he graduated from the university and received a diploma of the first degree. Semenov Nikolai Nikolaevich remains in the educational institution, having entered the professorial scholarship (modern postgraduate study).
Service
Semenov's biographyNikolai Nikolaevich makes a new round when he travels to Samara in 1918 to visit his parents. Arriving there, he finds the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps. In the summer of 1918, the Socialist-Revolutionaries seized power in Samara. After some time, Nikolai volunteers to become a voluntary soldier of the White Guard army. There he served only three weeks as a horseman of an artillery battery. Such a short service life is explained by the fact that soon the news came that the father was seriously ill. The young man got leave, but his father died soon after.
Tomsk
After that, Nikolai decided to return to the battlefield, but deserted and went to Tomsk, which was the nearest university campus. The scientist spent about two years of his life here, working at the university and the Institute of Technology. However, after a while, the scientist was mobilized into the Kolchak army. He got into the artillery battalion, but was soon transferred to the radio battalion thanks to the perseverance of his colleagues. After that, he was able to continue his studies at the Institute of Technology. In the winter of 1919, the city was captured by the Red Army. This led to the fact that Semenov was fired, after which he continued to engage in scientific and teaching work.
A. Ioffe invitations
In the spring of 1920, Nikolai Semyonov, whose biography is making another unexpected turn, returns to Petrograd at the invitation of his friend A. Ioffe, who at that time was creating the Physico-Technical X-ray Institute. Semenovbecame head of the laboratory of electronic phenomena, and after a while he acted as deputy director at the Physico-Technical Institute. Together with P. Kapitsa, our hero offers the scientific world a new method for measuring the magnetic field of an atom in an inhomogeneous field. The same method was actively developed by two other scientists O. Stern and V. Gerlach. In 1928, Nikolai Semenov received the title of professor at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. After some time, he creates the Institute of Chemical Physics and becomes its permanent director until the last days of his life. An interesting fact is that within a few days after the founding of the university, it was moved to Moscow.
Soon the professor becomes a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1932 - a real member. Shortly thereafter, he publishes a monograph en titled "Chemical Kinetics and Chain Reactions", where he convincingly proves the existence of a chain reaction.
War
Nikolai Semyonov is a chemist who came in handy for his state even during the war. In 1941, he was evacuated to Kazan, where he was assigned to deal with the issues of explosions and combustion. Soon he returns to the capital and begins to work as a teacher at Moscow State University. University workers reacted extremely coldly to the appearance of Semenov in their circles. In the same year, he organized the Department of Chemical Kinetics, which he headed for the next 40 years.
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
BIn 1946, together with P. Kapitsa, Semenov organized the above-mentioned educational institution and at the same time became its co-founder and scientific director of the Faculty of Chemistry. For ten years of his life (1940-1950) he was an active participant and figure in the Soviet atomic project. In 1947 Nikolai Semyonov joined the ranks of the CPSU. From 1961 to 1966 he was a candidate member of the Central Committee, and also became a deputy of the Supreme Council 3 times. In 1966, he was elected deputy of the 7th convocation from constituency No. 512.
The scientist was one of the opponents of nuclear war. His scientific school includes such chemists and physicists as Ya. Zel'dovich, Yu. Khariton, N. Emanuel. The great scientist was buried in the capital of Russia at the Novodevichy cemetery. Death came from natural causes in the autumn of 1986.
Scientific activity
Nikolai Semenov, whose brief biography is the subject of this article, made many useful scientific discoveries. The main ones concern the theory of thermal explosion, combustion of gas mixtures and the theory of chain reactions in chemistry. The first serious question of the scientist was the problem of ionization of gases. He also de alt with the topic of breakdown of dielectrics, which later led him to create a thermal theory of breakdown. It was she who became the basis for the creation of the theory of thermal ignition. All this allowed the scientist to deal with the issues of detonation and combustion of explosives.
Together with the scientist P. Kapitza, he conducted experiments, which made it possible to calculate the deflection of a beam of paramagnetic atoms in an inhomogeneous field. With Yu. Khariton managed to discovercondensation temperature and its critical density.
The scientist became most famous thanks to his theory of chain reactions. A little later, he proved the radical nature of the chain process, citing a number of arguments. These discoveries of the scientist opened up new horizons for chemists. With A. Shilov, he proved the relationship between energy processes and the development of chain reactions. In 1956, Semenov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also the author of the book The Phenomenon of Energetic Chain Branching in Chemical Reactions.
Nikolai Semenov, whose photo is in the article, has finalized the Bodenstein method of quasi-stationary concentrations. Prior to this, this method was the only basis for carrying out kinetic calculations in practice. Separate works of the scientist are devoted to the topic of catalytic processes. He substantiated the theory of heterogeneous catalysis together with F. Volkenstein and V. Voevodsky.
Family
Semenov Nikolai Nikolaevich grew up in a very decent family. As we already know, his father was an officer. After his resignation, he worked as an official, and later became a state councilor and received personal nobility. The mother of the chemist Elena Alexandrovna was of aristocratic origin. The maternal grandfather of Nikolai Semenov was an employee in Tsarskoye Selo.
Our hero married in 1921 a philologist-novelist, professor of Petrograd University and translator Dante Maria Isidorovna Boreisha-Liverovskaya. An interesting fact is that the woman already had 4 children from the first man and was much older than her companion. After twohappy years of marriage, Maria Isidorovna died of cancer. A year later, the scientist marries Natalya Burtseva, his wife's niece. This marriage was much more successful, as it gave the couple two wonderful children: Lyudmila and Yuri. In 1971, Semenov Nikolay divorced to connect his life with one of his assistants. The last marriage was, like the first, childless.
Summing up the results of the article, we can say that the works and experiments of Nikolai Semenov have become a solid basis for further research and development of chemical science. The activity of the scientist was marked by a list of awards that he deserved for his hard work and innovative ideas.
