Sergey Kapitsa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1928-02-14)14 February 1928 Cambridge, England |
| Died | 14 August 2012(2012-08-14) (aged 84) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Citizenship | Soviet,Russian,British[citation needed] |
| Alma mater | Moscow Aviation Institute |
| Known for | TV science magazine host since 1973 |
| Awards | UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science, 1979 andUSSR State Prize, 1980 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics,demography |
| Institutions | Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems,RAS andMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology |
Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa (Russian:Сергей Петрович Капица; 14 February 1928 – 14 August 2012) was a Russian physicist and demographer. He was best known as host of the popular and long-running Russian scientific TV show,Evident, but Incredible. His father was theNobel laureate Soviet-era physicistPyotr Kapitsa, and his brother was the geographer andAntarctic explorerAndrey Kapitsa.
Kapitsa was born inCambridge,England,[1] the son of Anna Alekseevna (Krylova) andPyotr Kapitsa. His maternal grandfather wasAleksey Nikolaevich Krylov,naval engineer, applied mathematician and memoirist, and the developer of theinsubmersibility technique. He wasbaptized while back in Britain, withIvan Pavlov serving as hisgodparent.[2] During his late life Kapitsa described himself as a "RussianOrthodox atheist".[2]
In 1935 his family returned to the USSR. Kapitsa graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1949. He was Senior Research Fellow at theLebedev Physical Institute,Russian Academy of Sciences and Professor at theMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Kapitsa's contributions to physics were in the areas of applied electrodynamics and accelerator physics; he is known, in particular, for his work on themicrotron, a device for producing electron beams.[3] In later years, his research focus was on historical demography, where he developed a number of mathematical models of theWorld System populationhyperbolic growth and the globaldemographic transition.
His activities in science popularization included hosting the Russian Television program,Evident, but Incredible, starting in 1973, for which he was awardedUNESCO'sKalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science in 1979[4] and the USSR State Prize in 1980, and editing the Russian edition ofScientific American from 1982 onwards. He was also active in issues of science and society through his participation in thePugwash conferences and theClub of Rome. In the 1980s he, along withCarl Sagan, was outspoken about the possibility that internationalnuclear war would bring about anuclear winter, making presentations in the US Senate in 1983[5][6] and the United Nations in 1985.[7] He was an advocate of planetary exploration and served on the advisory council of thePlanetary Society.[8] In 2012, Kapitsa was awarded the first gold medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in the dissemination of scientific knowledge.[9]
Kapitsa was a pioneer of scuba diving in the Soviet Union, he shot the first underwater film about theSea of Japan, which was shown at international film festivals, in particular inCannes, where it was second only to the film byJacques Cousteau.[9]
Kapitsa was the vice president of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and president of the Eurasian Physical Society, and was a strong proponent of restoring support for science in Russia.[10]
In 1992 theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented Kapitsa with thePublic Education in Science Award.[11]
On 14 August 2012, Kapitsa died at the age of 84 inMoscow. He is remembered for his role in the popularisation of science and, after forty years of hostingEvident, but Incredible, holding the record for being the longest serving host of a TV programme.[9]
In 2008 Kapitsa signed an open letter in defense ofSvetlana Bakhmina.[12]
During the late years Kapitsa was very critical of the state of the popular science and Russian television in general. In one of the last interviews he told about the closing of his TV program: "Channel One ordered me, first, to trash Soviet science, and, second, not to object againstpseudoscience. I refused categorically. Then I was thrown out... They were cynical... The results of their political setups could be felt today: intellectual defeat of Russia, I can't find another word for their activity...TEFI would've never turned into a one-class dictatorship before. I didn't receive a single TEFI. Only in the past 2008, whenVladimir Posner had left, I was awarded one for "personal contribution to the development of Russian television"."[13][verification needed]
Kapitsa was fluent inRomanian and stated thatMoldovans and Romanians are the same people.[14]
5094 Seryozhamain-beltasteroid, discovered on 20 October 1982, was named in honor of Sergei Kapitsa.[15]
On 5 March 2014 the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree "On memorialization ofS. P. Kapitsa".
On February 12, 2015 the Publishing and Trading Centre Marka issued a commemorative postage stamp and a postmark with image of Sergei Kapitsa.[16][17]
Media related toSergei Kapitsa at Wikimedia Commons
