Editing George Gamow (section)

== Move to America ==
In 1934, Gamow and his wife moved to the United States. He became a professor at [[George Washington University]] (GWU) in 1934 and recruited physicist [[Edward Teller]] from London to join him at GWU.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Astrophysics at GW {{!}} Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences {{!}} The George Washington University |url=https://physics.columbian.gwu.edu/history-astrophysics-gw |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> In 1936, Gamow and Teller published what became known as the "[[Gamow–Teller transition|Gamow–Teller selection rule]]" for [[beta decay]]. During his time in Washington, Gamow would also publish major scientific papers with [[Mário Schenberg]] and [[Ralph Alpher]]. By the late 1930s, Gamow's interests had turned towards [[astrophysics]] and [[cosmology]].

When recruited in GWU, Gamow started the [[Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics]]. A series of small conferences from 1935–1947, that brought up experts in theoretical physics to discuss different subjects.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=History of Astrophysics at GW {{!}} Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences {{!}} The George Washington University |url=https://physics.columbian.gwu.edu/history-astrophysics-gw |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> During the 1939 conference, Bohr announced publicly the discovery of [[nuclear fission]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1935, Gamow's son, [[Igor Gamow]] was born (in a 1947 book, Gamow's dedication was "To my son IGOR, Who Would Rather Be a Cowboy"). George Gamow became a [[naturalized citizen|naturalized American]] in 1940. He retained his formal association with GWU until 1956.

During World War II, Gamow continued to teach physics at [[George Washington University]] and consulted for the US Navy.

Gamow was interested in the processes of [[stellar evolution]] and the early history of the [[Solar System]]. In 1945, he co-authored a paper supporting work by German theoretical physicist [[Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker]] on planetary formation in the early Solar System.<ref name=Gamow>{{cite journal|last=Gamow|first=G.|author2=Hynek, J. A.|title=A New Theory by C. F. Von Weizsacker of the Origin of the Planetary System|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|date=1 March 1945|volume=101|page=249|doi=10.1086/144711|bibcode = 1945ApJ...101..249G }}</ref> Gamow published another paper in the British journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in 1948, in which he developed equations for the mass and radius of a primordial galaxy (which typically contains about one hundred billion stars, each with a mass comparable with that of the Sun).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102_2009/images/extgamow.htm|title=George Gamow|website=ircamera.as.arizona.edu|access-date=2018-01-28|archive-date=2018-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129140434/http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102_2009/images/extgamow.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>