Vladimir Veksler

Who was Vladimir Veksler?

Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler 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. Since 1936 he worked in Lebedev Physical Institute, being involved in particle detector development and study of cosmic rays. He participated in a number of expeditions to Pamir Mountains and Elbrus devoted to study of cosmic ray composition. Since 1944 he worked 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.

He was a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences since 1946 and a full member since 1958. Since 1963 he has the head of the Nuclear Physics Department of the Academy. He established the journal "Nuclear Physics".and became its first editor-in-chief.