Abrikosov, Alexei Alekseyevich

Abrikosov, Alexei Alekseyevich, 1928–2017, Russian-American physicist, Ph.D. Institute for Physical Problems, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1951. Abrikosov was a researcher at the Institute, then from 1965 to 1988 he was a department head at the Landau Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences; from 1988 to 1991 he was director of the Institute of High Pressure Physics. He also was a professor at Moscow State Univ. from 1951 to 1976. Abrikosov became a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois in 1991, working there until 2016, and was leader (1992–2000) of Argonne's condensed matter theory group. In 2003 Abrikosov was a co-recipient, with Vitaly Ginzburg and Anthony Leggett, of the Nobel Prize in Physics for making pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors (see superconductivity). In the 1950s Abrikosov developed a theory to explain how a certain class of superconductors, known as Type II, are superconductive and magnetic at the same time and how they remain superconductive in high magnetic fields. Type II superconductors are the most important superconductors technologically, and are used in MRI machines, particle accelerators, and other devices.

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