About E. K. Zavoisky

E.K. Zavoisky, from Kazan, Tatarstan, is nowadays acknowledged as the inventor of Electron Spin Resonance.  There is also strong support for the thesis that he was the first to observe a NMR signal as early as 1941, but he could not detect the signal reproducibly with the very basic apparatus he was able to build with the limited means available to him.

Due to the political situation at that time, Zavoisky's work remained largely unnoticed in the West.  Although unquestionably the first to observe spin resonance, the Nobel Prize Committee did not further consider his contribution due to the lack of follow-up papers and his move to other fields. 

It is interesting to note that the C.V. of Zavoisky explicitly reports his first trip to an international conference (1961).  There is little doubt that the history of spin resonance would be seen from a different perspective if Zavoisky had been able to pursue his work within the awareness of an international scientific community.

It seems, therefore, to be more than appropriate to name a program established to help scientists from around the world to communicate their achievements in the memory of E.K. Zavoisky.

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