History
The Institute was founded because of the scientific missions of brothers Abraham Alikhanov and Artem Alikhanian to Mt. Aragats, the highest peak in modern Armenia. The aim of these expeditions was to study cosmic rays. Proton and neutron components as well as narrow air showers were discovered during these investigations. The Alikhanov - Alikhanian mass spectrometer was developed here and became the prototype for hodoscopic devices that have played a major role in nuclear physics research. The search for new particles resulted in discovery of existence of rather energetic particles as a component of cosmic rays (USSR license for discovery N 384). In 1963 the Institute was transferred to the USSR State Committee on Atomic Energy. The construction of an electron accelerator accomplished in 1967 became an important landmark in the history of the YerPhI.
In 1970 a group from YerPhi was awarded the Lenin Prize for the development of track spark chambers.
Read more about this topic: Yerevan Physics Institute
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)