Yuri Oganessian

In 2009, scientists in the United States of America confirmed Oganessian's team's discovery of flerovium over a decade before.

He is an acknowledged world-leader in the field of synthesizing and exploring new elements.

Yuri is a professor in the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR) in Dubna, Russia. He was born in1933 in Rostov/Don (USSR) and received his Doctor's Degree of Physics and Mathematical Sciences in 1970. He has been with the laboratory for Nuclear Reactions since 1967, and he participated in the development of Heavy Ion Physics in Dubna under the directorship of G. Flerov. He has been deputy director of this laboratory from 1976 until 1989 and became director of the FLNR, a position which he held until 1997.

Apart of the synthesis of heavy elements his research interests span a wide range of topics which he has pursued during his scientific life. He has contributed also to applied nuclear science: track membranes for microfilters, high purity isotope production for medical studies (Jodine 123, Plutonium 237), physics and techniques of heavy ion accelerators.

In heavy ion reactions he has contributed in particular to the study of the fusion and fission processes and more recently to the study of interactions and the properties of neutron-rich exotic nuclei. He is now head of a group in the same laboratory and strongly engaged in the experiments to synthesize isotopes of the elements with Z=113 and 114.

He is corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among the awards which he received one should mention the Flerov-Prize in 1993 and the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Award in 1995.