Vladimir Murzin 1927–2007
Vladimir Murzin, a pioneer of calorimetry in high-energy physics, and the principal researcher and professor of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University (SINP MSU), passed away on 12 June after having a heart attack. Up to his final days he was working actively on textbooks for students and scientists on modern particle physics, cosmic rays and astrophysical phenomena. At celebrations for his 80th birthday on 30 May, he showed copies of the 4th edition of his classic textbook The Physics of Cosmic Rays, dedicated to the 250th anniversary of MSU.
Vladimir graduated from the physics faculty of MSU in 1950. His diploma thesis was based on pioneering measurements of the cosmic-ray latitude effect, which he made while on a research ship travelling around the equator. Three years later, he received his PhD and became a senior scientist at SINP MSU. It was while continuing his studies of cosmic rays that he made a significant contribution to particle physics by proposing the ionization calorimeter method for measuring the energy of relativistic particles. Vladimir developed the method together with colleagues Natan Grigorov and Ilya Rapoport, and produced an analytic description of the nuclear cascade in dense matter and in the atmosphere within the context of the passage of particles through matter. The first such calorimeter was installed in July 1957, in the Pamir mountains, to measure the energy of cosmic-ray particles. Vladimir's skilful analysis of the features of events recorded with the calorimeter allowed the separation of cosmic pions and nucleons as well as the observation of the leading properties of charged and neutral pions in pion–nucleon interactions, similar to the leading effect in nucleon–nucleon interactions. With these results he became a full doctor of sciences in physics and mathematics in 1967.
At the beginning of the 1970s, Vladimir moved to high-energy physics for studies with large bubble chambers (the 2 m propane bubble chamber, the Mirabelle liquid-hydrogen bubble chamber, and the SCAT and 15 ft heavy-liquid bubble chambers at Protvino and Fermilab, respectively) in collaborations with CERN, JINR and the Institute for High Energy Physics, Protvino. He was an authority among the physics community, with a deep understanding of particle interaction dynamics and a skill in explaining the effects. He was also interested in diffraction processes.
Valdimir's main interest, however, was in neutrinos – both in high-energy physics and cosmic rays. While working with neutrino bubble-chamber projects, he developed the proposal for the BATISS experiment, which was to use a neutrino beam from Fermilab to Lake Issyk-Kul in Asia, passing through the Earth close to its centre. The project was started in 1980 with SINP MSU and the Kazakh University and Nuclear Physics Institute, but later stopped due to dramatic changes in the USSR. He also developed light but robust gaseous detectors for the neutrino experiment GINES for the planned UNK collider in Protvino.
During the 1990s, Vladimir worked with the E-632 neutrino collaboration on the 15 ft bubble chamber at Fermilab and took part in experiments in SLAC and DESY. He participated in conferences on deep inelastic scattering and wrote books that followed the fast progress of particle physics. He is also a founder of the Laboratory for Neutrino Physics in SINP MSU, and many of his former PhD students are working now on the LHC and other large projects around the world.
Being devoted to physics, for many years Vladimir used his vacations for his other scientific interests – entomology and ecology. He created a large collection of butterflies, and was lucky to find new types, some of which were named after him. He was a member of the Russian Entomological Society and the Moscow Society of Nature Research.
Vladimir had many friends around the world. He was respected for his deep and wide professional knowledge, devotion to scientific research, scientific vision, teaching talent and warm relationships with colleagues. Many of them went to him for clarification, advice and guidance and always received his attention and clear explanations. He was a charming person. We miss him greatly.
His friends and colleagues.