Georgy Flyorov

Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov (Russian: Гео́ргий Никола́евич Флёров, [gʲɪˈorgʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ˈflʲɵrəf]; 2 March 1913 – 19 November 1990) was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is known for his discovery of spontaneous fission and his contribution towards the physics of thermal reactions. In addition, he is also known for his letter directed to Joseph Stalin, during the midst of World War II, to start the atomic bomb project in the Soviet Union.

In 2012, element 114 was named flerovium after the research laboratory at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research bearing his name.

Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now known as the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University) and majored in thermal physics and nuclear physics.

He is known for writing to Stalin in April 1942, while serving as an air force lieutenant, and pointing out the conspicuous silence within the field of nuclear fission in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Flyorov's urgings to "build the uranium bomb without delay" eventually led to the development of the Soviet atomic bomb project.

He discovered spontaneous fission in 1940 with Konstantin Petrzhak.

In the 1970s he claimed as his discovery two transition metal elements: seaborgium and bohrium.

He founded the Flyorov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR), one of the main labs of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Researchin Dubna in 1957, and was director there until 1989.Also during this period, he chaired the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

• Hero of Socialist Labour (1949)
• Two Orders of Lenin (1949, 1983)
• Order of the October Revolution (1973)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour, three times (1959, 1963, 1975)
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1985)
• Lenin Prize (1967)
• Stalin Prize, twice (1946, 1949)
• USSR State Prize (1975)
• Honorary Citizen of Dubna
• The element flerovium (atomic number 114) named after him