Vladimir Veksler

Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler (Russian: Влади́мир Ио́сифович Ве́кслер, Ukrainian: Володимир Йосипович Векслер; March 4, 1907 in Zhytomyr, Volhynian Governorate Russian Empire (now Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine) – September 22, 1966 in Moscow, USSR) was a prominent Soviet experimental physicist.

Veksler's family moved from Zhitomir to Moscow in 1915. In 1931 he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. He began working at the Lebedev Physical Institute in 1936, and became involved in particle detector development and the study of cosmic rays. He participated in a number of expeditions to the Pamir Mountains and to Mount Elbrus, which were devoted to the study of cosmic ray composition. In 1944, he began working in the field of accelerator physics, where he became famous for the invention of the microtron, and the development of the synchrotron in independence to Edwin McMillan, pursuing the development of modern particle accelerators.

In 1956 he established and became the first director of the Laboratory of High Energy at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, where the Synchrophasotron, that, along with Protvino, incorporated the largest circular proton accelerators in the world at their time, was constructed under his leadership.

From 1946-1957, he was a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Veksler became a full member of the Academy in 1958. In 1963 he was appointed head of the Nuclear Physics Department of the Academy. In 1965, Veksler established the journal Nuclear Physics (Yadernaya Fizika) and became its first editor-in-chief.

He received numerous honours, including the Stalin Prize in 1951, the American Atoms for Peace Award in 1963 and the Lenin Prize in 1959.

Streets in Dubna, Odessa, Zhytomyr and CERN are named in his honour.