Abstract:

The lecture begins with the remarkable family background and scientific journey of Nobel Prize laureate Lev Landau. It explores his university years and spirited student life, his intellectual pilgrimage through the leading centers where quantum mechanics was born, and his development into one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of the 20th century. I will highlight Landau’s groundbreaking contributions to quantum mechanics, the theory of phase transitions, superfluidity, superconductivity, and high-energy physics. The second part of the lecture focuses on another side of Landau — the inspiring teacher and founder of the renowned Landau School of Theoretical Physics. As the principal author of the monumental Course of Theoretical Physics, Landau profoundly shaped the education of generations of physicists around the world.

Lev Davidovich Landau，1908-1968

Bio：

Andrey Varlamov was born April, 25, 1954 in Kyiv (Ukraine). In 1977, he got Master’s degree cum laude at the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology. In 1980, under supervision of Alex Abrikosov, he was awarded Ph.D. degree in Condensed  Matter Physics. He worked as a researcher, associate professor, and full professor of the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Moscow Institute for Steel and Alloys (Technological University), then as the fellow at the Condensed Matter Theory Group of Argonne National Laboratory (USA). Since 1999 he has been the principal investigator of the Institute of Superconductivity, Innovative Materials, and Devices of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-SPIN).  Andrey Varlamov was awarded the USSR State Prize in Physics for young scientists (1986), the degree of Doctor of Sciences (Habilitatus) in Condensed Matter Physics (1988), degrees of Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa of Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics (Ukraine, 2011), Mediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics (Italy, 2014), Bogolyubov Prize (Ukraine, 2018).  He is also a member-correspondent of Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere (Milano, 2009). His book The “Wonders of Physics” has gone through 16 editions over the past 40 years and has been translated into eight languages, including Chinese. Another work, co-authored with Jacques Villain and Attilio Rigamonti, “Le Kaleidoscope de la Physique”, received the Prix Grand Public Roberval in France in 2015 and has been published in four languages.His main fields of scientific interests are:  superconductivity, theory of metals, theory of phase transitions, thermoelectricity, and nanophysics. He is the author/editor of fifteen books, among which is the monograph “Theory of Fluctuations in Superconductors”, written in co-authorship with Anatoly Larkin, five monographic review articles, more than 200 scientific papers.