Editing George Gamow (section)

== Early biography and career ==
Gamow was born in [[Odessa]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Odesa]], [[Ukraine]]). His father taught Russian language and literature in [[secondary school]]s, and his mother taught geography and history at a school for girls. In addition to Russian, Gamow learned to speak some French from his mother and German from a tutor. Gamow learned English in his college years and became fluent. Most of his early publications were in German or Russian, but he later used English both for technical papers and for the lay audience.

He was educated at the [[Odessa University|Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Odessa]]<ref>{{cite web|title= History of the University of Odessa (in Ukrainian)|url= http://onu.edu.ua/uk/geninfo/history|website= History of the University of Odessa (in Ukrainian)|publisher= University of Odessa|access-date= 16 December 2016}}</ref> (1922–23) and at the [[Saint Petersburg State University|University of Leningrad]] (1923–1929). Gamow studied under [[Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman|Alexander Friedmann]] in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]], until Friedmann's early death in 1925, which required him to change dissertation advisors.  At the university, Gamow made friends with three other students of theoretical physics, [[Lev Landau]], [[Dmitri Ivanenko]] and [[Matvei Petrovich Bronstein|Matvey Bronshtein]]. The four formed a group they called the [[Three Musketeers]], which met to discuss and analyze the ground-breaking papers on [[quantum mechanics]] published during those years. He later used the same phrase to describe the [[Ralph Alpher| Alpher]], [[Robert Herman| Herman]] and Gamow group.

Upon graduation, he worked on [[quantum mechanics|quantum theory]] in [[Göttingen]], where his research into the atomic nucleus provided the basis for his doctorate. He then worked at the [[Niels Bohr Institute|Theoretical Physics Institute]] of the [[University of Copenhagen]] from 1928 to 1931, with a break to work with [[Ernest Rutherford]] at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] in [[Cambridge]]. He continued to study the atomic nucleus (proposing the [[liquid drop model|"liquid drop" model]]), but also worked on stellar physics with [[Robert d'Escourt Atkinson|Robert Atkinson]] and [[Fritz Houtermans]].

In 1931, Gamow was elected a corresponding member of the [[Soviet Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences of the USSR]] at age 28 – one of the youngest in its history.<ref>[http://www.khlopin.ru/youth.php Радиевый институт имени В. Г. Хлопина. Для молодёжи (Radium Institute named after V. G. Khlopin. For the young).] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100323163823/http://www.khlopin.ru/youth.php |date= 2010-03-23 }}</ref>{{efn | He was expelled from the Academy in 1938, but his membership was restored posthumously in 1990.}}{{efn | The youngest corresponding member elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was the Armenian mathematician [[Sergey Mergelyan]] (1928-2008), elected at age 24.}} During the period 1931–1933, Gamow worked in the Physical Department of the [[V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute|Radium Institute (Leningrad)]] headed by {{Interlanguage link|Vitaly Khlopin|2=ru|3=Хлопин, Виталий Григорьевич|preserve=1}}. Europe's first [[cyclotron]] was designed under the guidance and direct participation of [[Igor Kurchatov]], Lev Mysovskii and Gamow. In 1932, Gamow and Mysovskii submitted a draft design for consideration by the Academic Council of the Radium Institute, which approved it. The cyclotron was not completed until 1937.<ref>V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute. [http://www.khlopin.ru/english/memorial.php History / Memorial] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110426000000/http://www.khlopin.ru/english/memorial.php |date= April 26, 2011 }} and [http://www.khlopin.ru/english/hronology.php History / Chronology] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110426000000/http://www.khlopin.ru/english/hronology.php |date= April 26, 2011 }}. Retrieved 25 February 2012.</ref>

[[File:Bragg lab1 1930.jpg|thumb|Staff of William Bragg's laboratory in 1931: [[William Henry Bragg|W. H. Bragg]] (sitting, center): physicist A. Lebedev (leftmost), G. Gamow (rightmost)]]