Alexander Shlyakhter
Alexander Isaakovich Shlyakhter (Template:Langx; died June 2000) was a Russian nuclear physicist and risk analyst.
Shlyakhter is best known for discovering empirical evidence for the constancy of fundamental constants. While still a student in Leningrad, he observed that the products of past nuclear reactions at a natural nuclear fission reactor at Oklo, Gabon demonstrate that the fine-structure constant α has changed less than 10−17 per year over the last two billion years.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He published the finding in a letter to Nature in 1976.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Freeman Dyson later wrote that Shlyakhter had "revolutionized the subject" of variation in physical constants.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
In 1987 Shlyakhter became a research fellow in Richard Wilson's laboratory at Harvard University.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> His later work was in risk assessment, and included notable analyses of global warming,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> nuclear security<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1" /> and the Chernobyl disaster.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He died of cancer in June 2000.<ref name=":0" />