Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian was born inRostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR, USSR on 14 April 1933[12] toArmenian parents.[13][14] His father was fromIgdir (now in Turkey),[15] while his mother was fromArmavir in what is now Russia'sKrasnodar Krai.[16] Oganessian spent his childhood inYerevan, the capital ofSoviet Armenia, where his family relocated in 1939. His father, Tsolak, athermal engineer, was invited to work on thesynthetic rubber plant in Yerevan. After theEastern Front ofWorld War II commenced, his family decided to not return to Rostov since it was occupied by Germans. Yuri attended and finished school in Yerevan.[16][4][15] He initially wanted to become a painter.[15]
Oganessian was married to Irina Levonovna (1932–2010), a violinist and a music teacher inDubna,[17][18] with whom he had two daughters.[19][20] As of 2017, his daughters resided in the U.S.[21]
"A remarkable physicist and experimentalist… his work is characterised by originality, an ability to approach a problem from an unexpected side, and to achieve an ultimate result."
He became director of the Flyorov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR in 1989, after Flyorov retired, and had the job until 1996, when he was named the scientific director of the Flyorov laboratory.[10]
During the 1970s, Oganessian invented the "cold fusion" method, a technique to produce transactinide elements (superheavy elements)[7] Though they share a name, this process is unrelated to the unproven energy-producing process also namedcold fusion. Oganessian's process was crucial for the discoveries of elements from 106 to 113.[7] From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, the partnership of JINR, directed by Oganessian, and theGSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany, resulted in the discovery of six chemical elements (107 to 112):bohrium,[24][25][12]meitnerium,hassium,[26]darmstadtium,roentgenium, andcopernicium.[7]
Sherry Yennello has called him the "grandfather of superheavy elements".[7] Oganessian is the author of three discoveries, a monograph, 11 inventions, and more than 300 scientific papers.[9]
During early 2016, science writers and bloggers speculated that one of the superheavy elements would be named oganessium or oganesson.[36] TheInternational Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced in November 2016 that element 118 would be namedoganesson to honor Oganessian.[37][38][39] It was first observed in 2002 at JINR, by a joint team of Russian and American scientists. Directed by Oganessian, the team included American scientists of theLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California.[40] Prior to this announcement, a dozen elements had been named after people,[c] but of those, onlyseaborgium was likewise named while its namesake (Glenn T. Seaborg) was alive.[7] (The nameseinsteinium andfermium were suggested when their namesakes, respectivelyAlbert Einstein andEnrico Fermi, were still alive; however, by the time the names became official, Einstein and Fermi had both died.) As Seaborg died in 1999, Oganessian is the only currently living namesake of an element.[41][42][43]
In 1990, Oganessian was elected Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and in 2003 a Full Member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[12]
Lomonosov Gold Medal (2018) "for fundamental research in the fields of interaction of complex nuclei and experimental evidence of existence of an 'island of stability' for superheavy elements"[54][55]
Oganessian was granted Armenian citizenship in July 2018 by PremierNikol Pashinyan.[59] Oganessian is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). He is also the chairman of the international scientific board of theAlikhanian National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute).[60] In 2017HayPost issued a postage stamp dedicated to Oganessian.[61] In 2022 theCentral Bank of Armenia issued a silvercommemorative coin dedicated to Oganessian and the element oganesson (Og).[62] In April 2022 he was named honorary professor ofYerevan State University.[46]
^The nameseinsteinium andfermium for elements 99 and 100 were proposed when their namesakes (Albert Einstein andEnrico Fermi) were still alive, but were not made official until Einstein and Fermi had died.[11]
^"President Armen Sarkissian receive Academician Yuri Oganessian". Office to the President of the Republic of Armenia. 12 July 2018. Archived fromthe original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved20 December 2018.President Sarkissian said that on July 11 he signed the decree to granting Armenian citizenship to Yuri Oganessian.
^ab"About FLNR".flerovlab.jinr.ru. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Archived fromthe original on 19 June 2017.
^Mileham, Rebecca (October 2018)."Cold war, hot science"(PDF).Research Culture: Collaboration Collections.The Royal Society: 44. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 25 February 2022....says Oganessian, in excellent English.
^Morita, Kosuke; Morimoto, Kouji; Kaji, Daiya; Akiyama, Takahiro; Goto, Sin-ichi; Haba, Hiromitsu; Ideguchi, Eiji; Kanungo, Rituparna; Katori, Kenji; Koura, Hiroyuki; Kudo, Hisaaki; Ohnishi, Tetsuya; Ozawa, Akira; Suda, Toshimi; Sueki, Keisuke; Xu, HuShan; Yamaguchi, Takayuki; Yoneda, Akira; Yoshida, Atsushi; Zhao, YuLiang (2004)."Experiment on the Synthesis of Element 113 in the Reaction209Bi(70Zn,n)278113".Journal of the Physical Society of Japan.73 (10):2593–2596.Bibcode:2004JPSJ...73.2593M.doi:10.1143/JPSJ.73.2593.
^Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Utyonkov, V. K.; Lobanov, Yu. V.; Abdullin, F. Sh.; Polyakov, A. N.; Shirokovsky, I. V.; Tsyganov, Yu. S.; Gulbekian, G. G.; Bogomolov, S. L.; Gikal, B.; Mezentsev, A.; Iliev, S.; Subbotin, V.; Sukhov, A.; Buklanov, G.; Subotic, K.; Itkis, M.; Moody, K.; Wild, J.; Stoyer, N.; Stoyer, M.; Lougheed, R. (October 1999). "Synthesis of Superheavy Nuclei in the48Ca +244Pu Reaction".Physical Review Letters.83 (16): 3154.Bibcode:1999PhRvL..83.3154O.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3154.S2CID109929705.
^Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Utyonkov, V. K.; Dmitriev, S. N.; Lobanov, Yu. V.; Itkis, M. G.; Polyakov, A. N.; Tsyganov, Yu. S.; Mezentsev, A. N.; Yeremin, A. V.; Voinov, A.; Sokol, E.; Gulbekian, G.; Bogomolov, S.; Iliev, S.; Subbotin, V.; Sukhov, A.; Buklanov, G.; Shishkin, S.; Chepygin, V.; Vostokin, G.; Aksenov, N.; Hussonnois, M.; Subotic, K.; Zagrebaev, V.; Moody, K.; Patin, J.; Wild, J.; Stoyer, M.; Stoyer, N.; et al. (2005)."Synthesis of elements 115 and 113 in the reaction243Am +48Ca".Physical Review C.72 (3) 034611.Bibcode:2005PhRvC..72c4611O.doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.72.034611.
^Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Utyonkov, V. K.; Lobanov, Yu. V.; Abdullin, F. Sh.; Polyakov, A. N.; Shirokovsky, I. V.; Tsyganov, Yu. S.; Gulbekian, G. G.; Bogomolov, S. L.; Gikal, B.; Mezentsev, A.; Iliev, S.; Subbotin, V.; Sukhov, A.; Ivanov, O.; Buklanov, G.; Subotic, K.; Itkis, M.; Moody, K.; Wild, J.; Stoyer, N.; Stoyer, M.; Lougheed, R.; Laue, C.; Karelin, Ye.; Tatarinov, A. (2000). "Observation of the decay of292116".Physical Review C.63 (1) 011301.Bibcode:2000PhRvC..63a1301O.doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.63.011301.
^Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Abdullin, F. Sh.; Bailey, P. D.; Benker, D. E.; Bennett, M. E.; Dmitriev, S. N.; Ezold, J. G.; Hamilton, J. H.; Henderson, R. A.; Itkis, M. G.; Lobanov, Yu. V.; Mezentsev, A. N.; Moody, K. J.; Nelson, S. L.; Polyakov, A. N.; Porter, C. E.; Ramayya, A. V.; Riley, F. D.; Roberto, J. B.; Ryabinin, M. A.; Rykaczewski, K. P.; Sagaidak, R. N.; Shaughnessy, D. A.; Shirokovsky, I. V.; Stoyer, M. A.; Subbotin, V. G.; Sudowe, R.; Sukhov, A. M.; Tsyganov, Yu. S.; et al. (April 2010)."Synthesis of a New Element with Atomic Number Z=117".Physical Review Letters.104 (14) 142502.Bibcode:2010PhRvL.104n2502O.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.142502.PMID20481935.
^Medvedev, Yuri (18 December 2018)."Перевернуть пирамиду".Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian). No. 285. Archived fromthe original on 11 August 2020.Александр Михайлович, и все же ваш прогноз. Кто из наших ученых может в ближайшее время получить заветного Нобеля? Многие очевидным претендентом считают академика Юрия Оганесяна... Александр Сергеев: Конечно, кандидатура достойнейшая. Очень надеюсь, что ему поможет наступающий год, который Генеральная ассамблея ООН объявила Годом Периодической таблицы химических элементов.
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