Search giant celebrated the life of Lev Landau, a Soviet physicist who made several pioneering contributions to theoretical physics and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962, with its latest Doodle on Tuesday.
Landau’s name is scattered across the landscape of modern science, with the Landau Levels, Landau diamagnetism, Landau damping, and the Landau energy spectrum, which are all linked to the physicist. A crater of the moon is also named after him.
The researcher, born in Azerbaijan on January 22, 1908, demonstrated his brilliance in mathematics and science from an early age. But though he excelled within academia, he was socially anxious and found it difficult to relate to his schoolmates.
He was just 13 when he began university and 21 when he finished his PhD, winning the coveted Rockerfeller scholarship which launched his career as a groundbreaking scientist.
By 18, he had released his first publication on physics and Soviet funding allowed him to travel to research facilities in Zurich, Cambridge and Copenhagen.
Here the young physicist had the chance to study under Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who had a profound influence on the rest of his career.
Landau went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics himself in 1962, for his research into liquid helium’s behaviour at very low temperatures.
On Tuesday, Google celebrated Lev Landau's 111th birthday with a Google Doodle dedicated to the scientist.
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