VEKSLER, VLADIMIR

VEKSLER, VLADIMIR (1907–1966), Soviet physicist. Born and educated in Moscow, Veksler specialized in the physics of X-rays, cosmic rays, and in high-energy accelerator theory. For his last ten years he was head of the High Energy Laboratory at the well-known Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna. He was a member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. Veksler improved the performance of cyclotrons (the first atom-smashing machines), by showing how the speed of the "bullets" used to smash atoms could be increased by varying the magnetic field, or the frequency of the electrical surge. This led to the development of the synchrontons. In 1963, he shared with Edwin M. Millikan, who had suggested this independently, the United States Atoms for Peace Award of $75,000. He received the Lenin Prize in 1959 and contributed to the basic research for Sputnik I, the world's first man-made satellite launched in 1957. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Current Biography Yearbook, 1966 (1967), 39–41. (Maurice Goldsmith)