The centenary of Russian physicist Moisey Markov was celebrated on 14–16 May at the 6th Markov Readings held in Moscow and Dubna. In honour of the anniversary, the event saw the award of two Markov Prizes for 2008, to specialists in neutrino physics and accelerator physics.
From left to right: Victor Matveev, director of INR, with prize-winners Stanislav Mikheev, Leonid Kravchuck, Alexandr Feschenko, Sergei Esin and Albert Tavkhelidze, chairman of the Markov prize committee. Markov’s portrait is in the background. (Image credit: INR-RAS.)
Markov (1908–1994) made pioneering contributions to research in neutrino physics, as well as to studies of fundamental problems in elementary particle physics and quantum gravity, and on the borderline between particle physics and cosmology. The academician secretary of the Nuclear Physics Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for two decades (1967–1988), Markov played a big role in the country’s development of nuclear, particle and cosmic-ray physics and neutrino astrophysics. The Markov Prize was established by the Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in his memory as one of the founders of the Institute.
Alexei Smirnov shared the prize with Mikheev but was unable to be in Moscow. He will receive his prize later.
One Markov Prize for the centennial year was awarded to Stanislav Mikheev of INR and Alexei Smirnov of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics and INR. They received the prize "for their outstanding contributions to the theory of neutrino oscillations and neutrino astrophysics that has made major impact on the interpretation of data from the institute’s unique experiments at Baksan, the Large Volume Detector and the Liquid Scintillator Detector, as well as from other experiments". They are especially well known for their work on neutrino oscillations, particularly in matter. Sergei Esin, Leonid Kravchuck and Alexandr Feschenko, all from INR, received the second centennial Markov Prize "for the outstanding contribution to the development of physics and technology of accelerators, construction and upgrade of the high current linear accelerator of the Moscow Meson Factory".