Viktor Ambartsumian

Viktor Ambartsumian (1908 to 1996) was a Soviet and Armenian astrophysicist and science administrator, widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union. Born in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, to Armenian parents, he was educated at Leningrad State University and the Pulkovo Observatory, taught at Leningrad and in 1934 founded the Soviet Union's first department of astrophysics there. He then moved to Soviet Armenia, where he founded the Byurakan Observatory in 1946, co-founded the Armenian Academy of Sciences and led it for almost half a century. In 1965 he founded the journal Astrofizika and edited it for over twenty years. He began retiring from his posts only after the age of eighty, was named a National Hero of Armenia in 1994 and died at his house in Byurakan in 1996.