Gamow, George << GAM awf, jawrj >> (1904-1968), was a Russian-born physicist known for his contributions to many fields of science. He was also a talented writer, producing more than 20 popular science books.
Gamow worked in such diverse areas as nuclear physics, cosmology (the study of the universe), astronomy, astrophysics, and molecular biology. In nuclear physics, for example, he discovered how alpha particles escape from atomic nuclei. This discovery later served as the basis of his version of the theory of the big bang, an explosive beginning of the universe 10 billion to 20 billion years ago. Gamow provided some of the first evidence for the big bang theory. He predicted that it would have produced a background of microwave radiation, which was later found to exist. The detection of this radiation led many cosmologists to support the big bang theory.
Gamow was born on March 4, 1904, in Odessa, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. In 1928, he received a Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg University). From 1928 to 1931, he conducted research at several European universities. He moved to the United States in 1934 and became a U.S. citizen in 1940. He was professor of physics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from 1934 to 1956, when he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado. He died in Boulder, Colorado, on Aug. 20, 1968. Gamow’s autobiography, My World Line, was published in 1970, after his death.
