Pyotr Kapitsa

Kapitsa, Pyotr (1894–1984), Russian physicist best known for his work in low-temperature physics (cryogenics). During the 1920s and early 1930s he worked at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. After returning to the USSR (1934) he directed the Institute for Physical Problems. He was an outspoken advocate of freedom of thought and scientific exchange and was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize for physics.

See also: Physics.