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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. |
