Konstantin Petrzhak

Biography

Konstantin Antonovich Petrzhak (alternatively Pietrzak; Russian: Константи́н Анто́нович Пе́тржак, IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈpʲedʐək], Polish: [ˈpjɛt.ʂak]; 4 September 1907 – 10 October 1998), D.Sc., was a Russian physicist of Polish origin, and a professor of physics at the Saint Petersburg State University.

Receiving credit with Georgy Flyorov, a physicist, for the fundamental discovery of spontaneous fission of uranium in 1940, Petrzhak's career in physics was then spent mostly in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. Konstantin Petrzhak was among of Soviet pioneers in nuclear physics research.