George Gamow papers

George Gamow (1904-1968) was a professor of physics at The George Washington University from 1934 until 1956. While a student at the Institute of Theoretically Physics, Gamow put forth an hypothesis that atomic nuclei can be treated as little droplets of "nuclear fluid." These discoveries led to today's theory of fusion and fission.

Gamow was born in 1904 in Odessa, Russia. He studied at Novorossia University during 1922 and 1923 and at the University of Leningrad from 1923 until 1929. He received his Ph.D in 1928. He traveled to Copenhagen in 1929 Niels Bohr became very interested in his work offering him a scholarship from the Royal Danish Academy to study one year at the Institute of Theoretical Physics. After leaving Russia, Gamow accepted the chairmanship of the Physics Department at The George Washington University. Gamow's contribution to astronomy-research is mainly concerned with the origin of the Universe and the stars evolution. While at GWU, Gamow hired Edward Teller. He also established a series of seminars in Physics and astronomy that ran from 1935 to 1947.

In 1938, Gamow and colleague Ralph Alpher (a graduate of GWU) wrote a text about the Big Bang-theory and how matter would have come into existence. Gamow also published numerous popular books on science.