Biography
Abrikosov was born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR, on June 25, 1928, to a couple of physicians: Prof. Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov and Dr. Fani Abrikosova, née Wulf. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1948. From 1948 to 1965, he worked at the Institute for Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he received his Ph.D. in 1951 for the theory of thermal diffusion in plasmas, and then his Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree in 1955 for a thesis on quantum electrodynamics at high energies. From 1965 to 1988, he worked at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (USSR Academy of Sciences). He has been a professor at Moscow State University since 1965. In addition, he held tenure at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology from 1972 to 1976, and at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys from 1976 to 1991. He served as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1987 to 1991. In 1991, he became a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In two works in 1952 and 1957, Abrikosov explained how magnetic flux can penetrate a class of superconductors. This class of materials is known as type-II superconductors. The accompanying arrangement of magnetic flux lines is called the Abrikosov vortex lattice.
Since 1991, he has been working in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois on a contract basis. Abrikosov is an Argonne Distinguished Scientist at the Condensed Matter Theory Group in Argonne’s Materials Science Division. His recent research at Argonne National Laboratory has focused on the origins of magnetoresistance, a property of some materials that change their resistance to electrical flow under the influence of a magnetic field.
Read more about this topic: Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov
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