Lev Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau (Russian: Лев Дави́дович Ланда́у, Romanized: Lev Davidovich Landau, January 22, 1908 - April 1, 1968) was a Soviet physicist, the founder of condensed matter physics, and one of the leaders of Soviet science. He was also good at many branches of theoretical physics and made major contributions in many fields of theoretical physics. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his pioneering theories about condensed matter, especially liquid helium." He opposed the dictatorship of the Soviet Communist Party and was imprisoned for counterrevolutionary crimes. In 1962, Landau, who was still active at the forefront of research, was involved in a serious car accident. His ability to work was impaired and his physical condition deteriorated significantly. He died six years later. Many years after Landau's death, Alexey Abrikosov and Vitaly Ginzburg also won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003 for the theories of superconductors and superfluids they jointly established with Landau in their early years.