Yakov Zeldovich

Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich (1914–1987) was a Soviet physicist and physical chemist whose work ranged from nuclear reactions and combustion to cosmology and shock waves.

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Soviet atomic bomb project: The state-directed Soviet program that developed the country's first nuclear weapons. Zeldovich led theoretical work on nuclear chain reactions and helped design early Soviet weapons.
Zeldovich–von Neumann–Döring theory: A model of detonation that describes a shock followed by chemical reaction and energy release. Zeldovich independently developed a central account of the structure of detonation waves.
Yulii Khariton: A Soviet physicist who directed the Arzamas-16 nuclear weapons design laboratory. Khariton led the design institute where Zeldovich worked on nuclear weapons.
Minsk: The capital of Belarus, located in the country's central region. Zeldovich was born in Minsk in 1914.
Zeldovich number: A dimensionless parameter comparing activation energy with thermal energy in combustion and reaction-flow models. The number carries his name in the field where he helped establish reaction theory.
Nuclear chain reaction: A process in which neutrons from nuclear fission trigger further fissions, sustaining a sequence of reactions. His early calculations addressed whether fission could sustain an explosive chain reaction.
Zeldovich–Frank-Kamenetskii equation: A simplified nonlinear equation used to analyze thermal ignition and reaction-driven temperature changes. It formalizes the thermal-explosion problem central to his combustion research.
Andrei Sakharov: A Soviet physicist who helped develop the hydrogen bomb and later became a human-rights advocate. Sakharov and Zeldovich were leading theorists in the Soviet thermonuclear program.
Leningrad State University: A major Russian university founded in Saint Petersburg in 1819 and later renamed Saint Petersburg State University. Zeldovich studied chemistry there before beginning his research career.
Zeldovich–Sunyaev effect: The change in cosmic microwave background radiation caused by scattering from hot electrons in galaxy clusters. Zeldovich and Rashid Sunyaev predicted this measurable signature of clusters.