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Person

Igor Tamm

A man in a dark suit and tie sits with his hands clasped, wearing round glasses, against a neutral background.

Soviet theoretical physicist (1895–1971), Nobel laureate for explaining Cherenkov radiation. In 1950, with his young student Andrei Sakharov, he sketched the magnetic-confinement device later named the tokamak after the Russian acronym for "toroidal chamber with magnetic coils." The design remains the dominant approach to controlled thermonuclear fusion three-quarters of a century later.

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