Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich

Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (Russian:???? ????????? ?????????) (March 8, 1914 – December 2, 1987) was a prolific Soviet physicist. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and general relativity.

Awards and honors

• Bruce Medal (1983)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1984).
• Kurchatov Medal (1977)
• three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1953, 1957)
• USSR State Prize (1943, 1949, 1951, 1953)
• Lenin Prize (1957)
• three Orders of Lenin (1949, 1962, 1974)
• two Orders of the Red Banner (1945,1964)
• Order of the October Revolution (1962)
• An asteroid 11438 Zeldovich was named in his honor in 2001 http://xray.sai.msu.ru/~mystery/html/Z/planet/planet.html