Scientific community of our country will mark the 110th birth anniversary of the outstanding leader of national atomic project, founder of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", thrice Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1951, 1954), Stalin (1942, 1949, 1951, 1954) and Lenin (1957) Prize-Winner Academician Igor Kurchatov on January 12, 2013.

He, a famous physicist of the 20th century, played a key role in the elaboration of scientific-technical bases of mastering atomic energy in the USSR. In early 1943, he became a supervisor of works connected with the Soviet uranium project and till his last days in 1960 remained a leader of the most important nuclear programs of our country.

Under his leadership was worked out Soviet atomic and thermonuclear weaponry, were laid the fundamentals of modern nuclear and thermonuclear power engineering, were made discoveries of the world level in the sphere of controlled thermonuclear synthesis and set up leading scientific schools of physicists, were developed projects of international cooperation in the sphere of peaceful utilization of atomic energy. He was a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Presidium in 1946-1960.

Kurchatov's historical achievements, embodied in the first in the Soviet Union nuclear reactors, the first in the world atomic stations and an icebreaker, will forever remain in the memory of grateful descendants.

His name was given to the Institute of Nuclear Energy (today the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"), Beloyarsk Atomic Electric Station, the village, where Kursk AES was built, scientific-research vessel, crater on the Moon, underwater ridge in the Indian Ocean, squares and streets in Moscow, Obninsk, Dubna, Sarov and other cities of the country.

The USSR Academy of Sciences founded a medal named after I. Kurchatov, awarded to scientists for outstanding works in the sphere of nuclear physics.