Veniamin Grigorievich (Benjamin) Levich (Russian: Вениами́н Григо́рьевич Ле́вич; 30 March 1917 – 19 January 1987[1]) was a Soviet dissident,[2] who was an internationally prominent physical chemist, electrochemist and founder of the discipline of physico-chemical hydrodynamics. He was a student of the theoretical physicist, Lev Landau. His landmark textbook titled Physicochemical Hydrodynamics is widely considered his most important contribution to science.[3] The Levich equation describing a current at a rotating disk electrode is named after him. His research activities also included gas-phase collision reactions, electrochemistry, and the quantum mechanics of electron transfer.

Veniamin Grigorievich (Benjamin) Levich
Вениамин Григорьевич Левич
Born(1917-03-30)30 March 1917
Died19 January 1987(1987-01-19) (aged 69)
Englewood, New Jersey, United States
EducationSc.D., Physics and Mathematics
Alma materUniversity of Kharkiv
Known forLandau–Levich problem
Levich equation
Scientific career
Fieldsphysical chemistry

Levich received many honors during his life, including the Olin Palladium Award of The Electrochemical Society in 1973. He was elected a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in 1977 and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1982.[4] He was also a member of numerous scientific organizations, although on leaving the USSR in 1978 he had to relinquish his Soviet citizenship and, therefore, was expelled from the USSR Academy of Sciences.[1] An interdisciplinary institute at the City College of New York is named in his honor.[5] His son Eugene V. (Yevgeny) Levich also became a physicist, leaving the Soviet Union in 1975 and raising support for other family members.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Ennis, Thomas W. (21 January 1987). "Dr. Benjamin G. Levich dies; scientist and Soviet emigre". The New York Times.
  2. ^ De Boer, S. P.; Driessen, Evert; Verhaar, Hendrik (1982). "Levič, Veniamin G.". Biographical dictionary of dissidents in the Soviet Union: 1956–1975. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 319. ISBN 9024725380.
  3. ^ Levich, Veniamin G. (1962). Physicochemical Hydrodynamics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (english translation by Scripta Tchnica). ISBN 9780136744405. OCLC 567847240.
  4. ^ Acrivos, Andreas (1992). "Benjamin Levich", Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 5. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. pp. 164–169. ISBN 978-0-309-04689-3.
  5. ^ "Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics". City College of New York (CCNY). Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  6. ^ Christopher S. Wren (18 July 1978). "Soviet Jews in Israel voice 'Concern over Kin Left Behind'". New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2021.

Further reading

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  • De Boer, S. P.; Driessen, Evert; Verhaar, Hendrik (1982). "Levič, Veniamin G.". Biographical dictionary of dissidents in the Soviet Union: 1956–1975. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 319. ISBN 9024725380.