View source for Biography:Nikolay Semyonov

{{short description|Soviet physical chemist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Nikolay Semyonov
| native_name       = {{nobold|Николай Семёнов}}
| native_name_lang  = ru
| image             = Nikolay Semyonov Nobel.jpg
| image_size        = 210px
| caption           = Semyonov in 1956
| birth_name        = Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov
| birth_date        = {{OldStyleDate|15 April|1896|3 April}}
| birth_place       = Saratov, Saratov Governorate, [[Place:Russian Empire|Russian Empire]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1986|9|25|1896|4|15|df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Place:Moscow|Moscow]], Russian SFSR, [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]]
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = Russian
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Physics:Physics|Physics]], [[Chemistry:Chemistry|chemistry]]
| work_institutions = 
| alma_mater        = 
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Biography:Abram Ioffe|Abram Ioffe]]
| doctoral_students = [[Biography:David A. Frank-Kamenetskii|David A. Frank-Kamenetskii]]
| known_for         = [[Chemistry:Chemical transformation|chemical transformation]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| prizes            = {{no wrap|Nobel Prize in chemistry {{small|(1956)}}<br>Lomonosov Gold Medal {{small|(1969)}}}}
| religion          = 
| footnotes         = 
| signature         = 
}}

'''Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov {{post-nominals|post-noms=ForMemRS}}''', sometimes '''Semenov''', '''Semionov''' or '''Semenoff'''<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal |last1=Dainton |first1=L. |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1990.0042 |title=Nikolai Nikolaevich Semenov. 16 April 1896-25 September 1986 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=36 |pages=526–546 |year=1990 |doi-access=free }}</ref> ({{lang-ru|Никола́й Никола́евич Семёнов}}; {{OldStyleDate|15 April|1896|3 April}} – 25 September 1986) was a Soviet [[Physicist|physicist]] and [[Chemist|chemist]]. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of [[Chemistry:Chemical transformation|chemical transformation]].

==Life and career==
Semyonov was born in Saratov, the son of Elena Dmitrieva and Nikolai Alex Semyonov.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/nikolai-n-semenov-woc/ |title=Nikolai N. Semenov Summary}}</ref> He graduated from the department of [[Physics:Physics|physics]] of Petrograd University (1913–1917), where he was a student of [[Biography:Abram Ioffe|Abram Fyodorovich Ioffe]]. In 1918, he moved to Samara, where he was enlisted into Kolchak's White Army during Russian Civil War.

Semyonov published his first research paper in 1916 and became a lecturer at the University of Tomsk in western Siberia.

After graduating from Saint Petersburg State University, he worked as an assistant and lecturer at the Tomsk and Tomsk University Institute of Technology, where he published his first research paper in 1916.  He returned to western Siberia, Petrograd and took charge of the [[Physics:Electron|electron]] phenomena laboratory of the Petrograd Physico-Technical Institute in 1920.  He also became the vice-director of the institute. In 1921, he married [[Philology|philologist]] Maria Boreishe-Liverovsky (student of Zhirmunsky). She died two years later. On September 15-1924, Nikolay married Maria's niece, Natalia Nikolaevna Burtseva. They had two children, one son Yurii Nikolaevich and one daughter Ludmilla Nikolaevna.

During that difficult time, Semyonov, together with [[Biography:Pyotr Kapitsa|Pyotr Kapitsa]], discovered a way to measure the [[Physics:Magnetic field|magnetic field]] of an [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|atomic nucleus]] (1922). Later the experimental setup was improved by [[Biography:Otto Stern|Otto Stern]] and Walther Gerlach and became known as [[Physics:Stern–Gerlach experiment|Stern–Gerlach experiment]].

In 1925, Semyonov, together with [[Biography:Yakov Frenkel|Yakov Frenkel]], studied [[Physics:Kinetic theory of gases|kinetics]] of [[Physics:Condensation|condensation]] and [[Chemistry:Adsorption|adsorption]] of [[Chemistry:Vapor|vapor]]s. In 1927, he studied [[Physics:Ion|ion]]isation in [[Physics:Gas|gas]]es and published an important book, ''Chemistry of the Electron''. In 1928, he, together with [[Biography:Vladimir Fock|Vladimir Fock]], created a theory of thermal disruptive discharge of [[Physics:Dielectric|dielectric]]s.

In 1927, Semyonov studied the ionization of gases, the chemistry of the electron. In 1928, he created the theory of the broken discharge of dielectrics with [[Biography:Vladimir Fock|Vladimir Fock]].

He lectured at the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute and was appointed Professor in 1928. In 1931, he organized the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences (which moved to Chernogolovka in 1943) and became its first director. In 1932, he became a full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

The ideas of Semyonov have been applied in the science of reaction and production of polymerization reactions. His ideas are also applied in catalysis studies in biological systems.

Semyonov married  Natalya Nikolaevna Semyonov and together they both have a son and a daughter.
Semyonov died on September 25, 1986, in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

==Significant works==
[[File:KustodiyevSemenov Kapitsa.JPG|thumb|Semyonov (right) and Kapitsa, portrait  by Boris Kustodiev, 1921.]]
[[File:NN Semyonov 2021 stamp of Russia.jpg|thumb|Semyonov on a 2021 stamp of Russia]]
Semyonov's outstanding work on the mechanism of chemical transformation includes an exhaustive analysis of the application of the [[Philosophy:Chain reaction|chain]] theory to varied reactions (1934–1954) and, more significantly, to [[Physics:Combustion|combustion]] processes. He proposed a theory of degenerate branching, which led to a better understanding of the phenomena associated with the induction periods of oxidation processes. He spent most of his career focusing and developing the field of chemical chain reactions.

Semyonov wrote two important books outlining his work. ''Chemical Kinetics and Chain Reactions'' was published in 1934, with an English edition in 1935. It was the first book in the U.S.S.R. to develop a detailed theory of unbranched and branched chain reactions in chemistry. ''Some Problems of Chemical Kinetics and Reactivity'', first published in 1954, was revised in 1958; there are also English, American, German, and Chinese editions. He is the only Soviet/Russian Chemistry Nobel Laureate, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (together with Sir [[Biography:Cyril Norman Hinshelwood|Cyril Norman Hinshelwood]]) for his work in 1956.

Semyonov had long been a supporter of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. After the [[Physics:Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]] accused the Soviet Union of heavy scientific censorship in 1953, he coauthored the Soviet response which denied all accusations. He is also noted as being the most famous signatory to a 1971 public letter from Soviet scientists to United States president Richard Nixon, on displeasure in the murder trial of Angela Davis.

Semyonov trained Russian organometallic chemist Alexandr Shilov, who discovered platinum catalyzed C-H activation.

==Honours and awards==
* Orders of Lenin, nine times<ref name=lat>{{cite news |newspaper={{wipe|Los Angeles Times}} |title=1956 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry : Soviet Scientist Nikolai Semyonov Dies |date=1 October 1986}}</ref> (incl. 1945, 1953, 1956, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981<ref name=cdsb>{{cite web |publisher=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography |website=encyclopedia.com |title=Nikolai Nikolaevich Semenov |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nikolai_Nikolaevich_Semenov.aspx |year=2008 |access-date=10 October 2011}}</ref>)
* Stalin Prize (1941, 1949)<ref name=cdsb/>
* Honorary Member of the British Chemical Society (1943)
* Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1946)<ref name=cdsb/>
* Honorary member of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1954)
* Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1956)
* Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (1958)<ref name="frs"/>
* Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1959)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/6642/ |title=List of Members |website=leopoldina.org |access-date=6 October 2017}}</ref>
* Honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1961)
* Honorary member of the New York Academy of Sciences (1962)
* Foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1963)
* Honorary Member of the [[Organization:Romanian Academy|Romanian Academy]] (1965)
* Hero of Socialist Labour, twice (1966, 1976)<ref name=cdsb/>
* Lomonosov Gold Medal (1969)
* Lenin Prize (1976)<ref name=cdsb/>
* Order of the October Revolution (1986)<ref name=cdsb/>
* Medal "In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
* Mendeleev Prize<ref name=cdsb/>
* 5 total badges of the Order of Lenin
* Honorary Member of The Soviet Academy of Sciences (1932)

Semyonov was also an Honorary Doctor of several universities: [[Organization:University of Oxford|Oxford]] (1960), Brussels (1962), London (1965), Budapest Technical University (1965), Polytechnic Institute of Milan (1964) and others.

== Legacy ==
* In 1990, the IHF RAS was named after N. N. Semenov;
* In 1994, a memorial plaque was unveiled in honor of Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov on the main building of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University (29 Politechnicheskaya Street);<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?id=17265|title=Семёнов Николай Николаевич|website=warheroes.ru|date=|access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref>
* The memorial plaque is installed on the facade of the Main building of the A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg (26 Politechnicheskaya str.).<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?id=23389|title=Семёнов Николай Николаевич|website=warheroes.ru|date=|access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref>
* On July 27, 1996, and one of the streets in the South-Western Administrative District of the city of Moscow on the territory of the district Yuzhnoye Butovo was given the name Academician Semenov Street;
* In Saratov , one of the streets is named after Semenov;<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://nversia.ru/news/saratovskuyu-ulicu-nazvali-v-chest-nobelevskogo-laureata/|title=Саратовскую улицу назвали в честь нобелевского лауреата|website=nversia.ru|date=2013-11-01|access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref>
* In Tyumen , one of the streets is named after Semenov;<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=http://safe-rgs.ru/1438-ulica-nikolaya-semenova-himika-i-fizika.html|title=Улица Николая Семенова - химика и физика|website=|date=2015-12-09|access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref>
* A memorial plaque is installed on the house in Moscow at 24 Frunzenskaya Embankment, where Semenov spent his last years of life;
* The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences has a Commission for the development of the scientific heritage of Academician N. N. Semenov;
* Airliner [[Engineering:Airbus A321|Airbus A321]] (VQ-BOI) of the airline "Aeroflot" "N. Semenov";<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://www.aviaport.ru/digest/2012/03/11/230972.html|title=АЭРОФЛОТ ВВЕЛ В ЭКСПЛУАТАЦИЮ ЛАЙНЕР А321 "Н.СЕМЕНОВ"|website=www.aviaport.ru|date=2012-03-11|access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref>
* On April 5, 2019, in Moscow on the territory of National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI" a monument was erected by the sculptor Alexandra Mironova<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://mephi.ru/content/news/1387/130363|title=В НИЯУ МИФИ ОТКРЫЛИ ПАМЯТНИК ЛАУРЕАТУ НОБЕЛЕВСКОЙ ПРЕМИИ, СОЗДАТЕЛЮ КАФЕДРЫ ХИМИЧЕСКОЙ ФИЗИКИ МИФИ НИКОЛАЮ НИКОЛАЕВИЧУ СЕМЕНОВУ|website=mephi.ru|date=2019-04-09|access-date=}}</ref>
* At the beginning of April 2022, a monument to Academician Nikolai Semenov was unveiled in [[Place:Moscow|Moscow]] on Kosygin Street, house 4.<ref>{{Cite web|language=ru|url=https://vm.ru/news/985511-chetyre-novyh-pamyatnika-ustanovili-v-moskve|title=Четыре новых памятника установили в Москве|website=vm.ru|date=2022-07-31|access-date=}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Philosophy:Chain reaction|Chain reaction]]
* [[Chemistry:Chemical kinetics|Chemical kinetics]]
* [[Chemistry:Chemical reaction network theory|Chemical reaction network theory]]
* [[Physics:Frank-Kamenetskii theory#Semenov theory|Semenov theory]]
* [[Physics:Bell–Evans–Polanyi principle|Evans–Polanyi–Semenov principle]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}{{Reflist|refs=https://www.nndb.com/people/542/000100242/|group=NNDB|liststyle=decimal-leading-zero}}
* Nikolay Semenov, https://persona.rin.ru/eng/view/f/0/28293/nikolay-semenov, Retrieved 27 October 2022
* Nikolay Semenov, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1956/semenov/biographical/, Retrieved 27 October 2022
* Nikolai Nikolayevich Semyonov, great physicist, chemist and mathematician, https://rinconeducativo.org/en/recursos-educativos/nikolai-nikolayevich-semionov-gran-fisico-quimico-y-matematico/, Retrieved 8 December
* Nikolay Semyonov, https://www.nndb.com/people/542/000100242/ Retrieved 2019(Uns. Date Format)

==External links==
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1956 ''Some Problems Relating to Chain Reactions and to the Theory of Combustion''
* Semyonov's  Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1956/semenov-lecture.html Some Problems Relating to Chain Reactions and to the Theory of Combustion]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060615051040/http://www.chph.ras.ru/main_eng.html N.N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics]
* {{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110926231247/http://library.istu.edu/hoe/personalia/semenov.pdf Semyonov's Biography].
* {{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20150502204350/http://www.n-t.org/nl/hm/semenov.htm Another Semyonov's Biography].

{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951–1975}}
{{1956 Nobel Prize winners}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Semyonov, Nikolay Nikolayevich}}
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Soviet physicists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Nikolay Semyonov}}