Viktor Robertovich Bursian (1886–1945)

This article gives a portrait of a pioneer of Soviet physics, who played a large role in building up theoretical physics in the USSR. At the beginning of this century V. R. Bursian carried out research on the physics of currents in gases and in a vacuum, on dispersion and gyration, on the electron theory of matter, and on the kinetics of chain reactions. Electrophysical methods for geological exploration were first developed by him.