Editing Abram Ioffe

{{short description|Soviet physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Abram Ioffe
| native_name       = Абрам Иоффе
| native_name_lang  = ru
| image             = Abram Ioffe young2cr.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| birth_name        = Abram Fedorovich Ioffe
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1880|10|29|df=y}}<ref name=gse/>
| birth_place       = [[Romny]], [[Poltava Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Ukraine]]) <ref name=gse/>
| residence         = 
| nationality       = 
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1960|10|14|1880|10|29}}<ref name=gse>[http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/I/IOFFE_Abram_Fedorovich/_Ioffe_A.F..html Абрам Федорович Иоффе] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121055533/http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/I/IOFFE_Abram_Fedorovich/_Ioffe_A.F..html |date=2021-01-21 }}. [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref>
| death_place       = [[Leningrad]], [[Soviet Union]]<ref name=gse/>
| field             = [[Physics]]
| work_institution  = [[State Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology]]; [[Ioffe Institute|Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute]]<ref name=gse/>
| alma_mater        = Munich University (PhD 1905); Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology (1902)<ref name=gse/>
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Wilhelm Röntgen]]
| doctoral_students = [[Nikolay Semyonov]]<br/>[[Pyotr Lukirsky]]<br>[[Pyotr Kapitsa]]
| known_for         = 
| awards            = [[Lenin Prize]] (1961)<br>3×[[Order of Lenin]]<ref name=gse/>
| footnotes         = 
| signature         = 1943 Ioffe.png
}}
'''Abram Fedorovich{{efn|Also [[Romanization of Russian|transliterated]] '''Fyodorovich'''.}} Ioffe''' ({{lang-rus|Абра́м Фёдорович Ио́ффе|p=ɐˈbram ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ ɪˈofɛ}}; {{OldStyleDate|29 October|1880|17 October}} – 14 October 1960) was a prominent [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[physicist]]. He received the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]] (1942), the [[Lenin Prize]] (1960) (posthumously), and the [[Hero of Socialist Labor]] (1955). Ioffe was an expert in various areas of [[solid state physics]] and [[electromagnetism]]. He established research laboratories for [[radioactivity]], [[superconductivity]], and [[nuclear physics]], many of which became independent institutes.

==Biography==
[[Image:IoffeStamp.jpg|thumb|Ioffe on a 1980 Soviet stamp]]
Ioffe was born into a middle-class [[The Pale of Settlement|Jewish]] family in the small town of [[Romny]], [[Russian Empire]] (now in [[Sumy Oblast]], [[Ukraine]]). After graduating from [[Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology]] in 1902, he spent two years as an assistant to [[Wilhelm Röntgen]] in his [[Munich]] laboratory. Ioffe completed his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] at [[Munich University]] in 1905. His dissertation studied the electrical conductivity/electrical stress of dielectric crystals.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

After 1906, Ioffe worked in the [[Saint Petersburg]] (from 1924 Leningrad) [[Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University|Polytechnical Institute]] where he eventually became a professor. In 1911 he (independently of [[Robert Andrews Millikan|Millikan]]) determined the [[Elementary charge|charge of an electron]].  In this experiment, the microparticles of zinc metal were irradiated with ultraviolet light to eject the electrons. The charged microparticles were then balanced in an electric field against gravity so that their charges could be determined (published in 1913).<ref>{{cite journal
 | last=Kikoin | first=I. K. |author2=M. S. Sominskiĭ
 | title=Abram Fedorovich Ioffe (on his eightieth birthday)
 | journal=Soviet Physics Uspekhi | year=1961
 | volume=3 | pages=798–809
 | doi=10.1070/PU1961v003n05ABEH005812 |bibcode = 1961SvPhU...3..798K
 | issue=5 }}</ref><ref>{{citation
 | first =Alexander
 | last =Mikerov
 | chapter =From history of electrical engineering V: Electron discovery and its properties estimation
 | publisher =IEEE 
 | year =2016
 | location =St Petersburg, Russia
 | doi =10.1109/EIConRusNW.2016.7448102
| title =2016 IEEE NW Russia Young Researchers in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Conference (EIConRusNW)
 | pages =3–7
 | isbn =978-1-5090-0445-4
 | s2cid =22681030
 }}</ref> In 1911 Ioffe converted from Judaism to [[Lutheranism]] and married a non-Jewish woman.<ref name="je">{{Cite web |last=Редакция |title=Иоффе Абрам |url=https://eleven.co.il/jews-of-russia/in-culture-science-economy/11830/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Электронная еврейская энциклопедия ОРТ |language=ru}}</ref> In 1913 he attained the title of Magister of Philosophy<ref name="ima55">{{cite web|title=Termens Kindheit |author=Léon Theremin |url=http://www.ima.or.at/theremin/?page_id=55&cat=1 |quote=Am 9. Mai 1913 fand die Verteidigung der Dissertation statt. ... Namens der Jury traten die Professoren Bergman und Chwolson auf, welche der Arbeit Joffes eine äußerst positive Bewertung ausstellten und meinten, dass sie vollauf des Magistergrades würdig sei. |language=de |access-date=2009-02-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090511013531/http://www.ima.or.at/theremin/?page_id=55&cat=1 |archive-date=2009-05-11 |author-link=Léon Theremin }}</ref> and in 1915 Doctor of Physics. In 1918 he became head of Physics and Technology division in State Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology. This division became the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (LPTI) in 1917 and eventually the Ioffe Institute.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

In the early 1930s, there was a critical need in the Air Defense Forces of the Red Army for means of detecting invading aircraft. A number of research institutes were involved with ''radiolokatory'' (radio-location) techniques. The Russian Academy of Sciences called a conference in January 1934 to assess this technology. Ioffe organized this conference, then published a journal report, disclosing to researchers throughout the world the science and technology that would ultimately be called [[radar]].<ref>Ioffe, A. F.; "Contemporary problems of the development of the technology of air defense," ''Sbornik PVO'', February 1934 (in Russian)</ref>
 
When the [[Soviet atomic bomb project]] began in 1942, Ioffe was asked to lead the technical effort, but refused the job on the grounds that he was too old. He saw great promise in the young [[Igor Kurchatov]], and placed him in charge of the first nuclear laboratory. During [[Joseph Stalin]]'s campaign against the so-called "[[rootless cosmopolitan]]s" (Jews), in 1950 Ioffe was made redundant from his position of the Director of LPTI and from the board of directors. In 1952–1954 he headed the Laboratory of Semiconductors of Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which in 1954 was reorganized as the Institute of Semiconductors. Following Ioffe's death, in 1960 the LPTI was renamed the [[Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute]] and is one of Russia's leading research centers.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Ioffe's students include [[Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov|Aleksandr Aleksandrov]], [[Pyotr Kapitsa]], [[Pyotr Lukirsky]], [[Isaak Kikoin]], [[Igor Kurchatov]], [[Yakov Frenkel]], [[Nikolay Semyonov]], [[Léon Theremin]], [[Boris Davydov]], and [[Lev Artsimovich]]. Ioffe asked [[Ernest Rutherford]] to accept Pyotr Kapitsa to [[Cavendish Laboratory]] at the [[University of Cambridge]].

== Commemoration ==
* The lunar crater [[Ioffe (crater)|Ioffe]] is named after him.
* [[Ioffe Institute|Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute]] carries his name.
* The Russian oceanographic and Polar research vessel [[Akademik Ioffe]] is named after him.
* The asteroid [[5222 Ioffe]] is named after him.

==Patents==
* {{US patent|1807292}} "Translating device"
* U.S. Patent on the [[Piezoelectricity|piezoelectric effect]]

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/joffe.htm A. Joffe, ''Physics and Technology'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170302204552/http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people%2FIoffe%2C+Abram Annotated bibliography for Abram Ioffe from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]
* [http://www.ioffe.ru/ioffe.html Short biography by the Russian Ioffe institute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614191652/http://www.ioffe.ru/ioffe.html |date=2019-06-14 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ioffe, Abram Fedorovich}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:Converts to Lutheranism from Judaism]]
[[Category:Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)]]
[[Category:Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour]]
[[Category:Inventors from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Physicists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian scientists]]
[[Category:Jewish Russian physicists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lenin Prize]]
[[Category:People from Poltava Governorate]]
[[Category:People from Romny]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University]]
[[Category:Russian Lutherans]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Soviet inventors]]
[[Category:Soviet Jewish physicists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize]]
[[Category:20th-century Ukrainian Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century Ukrainian physicists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian physicists]]