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:
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)