Lev Davidovich Landau (Russian: Лев Дави́дович Ланда́у; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.

[4] He is credited with laying the foundations of twentieth century condensed matter physics,[5] and is also considered arguably the greatest Soviet theoretical physicist.

[10] He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below 2.17 K (−270.98 °C).

Landau subsequently enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute where he eventually received a doctorate in Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1934.

[3] Landau developed a famous comprehensive exam called the "Theoretical Minimum" which students were expected to pass before admission to the school.

[28] On 27 April 1938, Landau was arrested for the possession of a leaflet which compared Stalinism to German Nazism and Italian Fascism.

[3][29] He was held in the NKVD's Lubyanka prison until his release, on 29 April 1939, after Pyotr Kapitsa (an experimental low-temperature physicist and the founder and head of the institute) and Bohr wrote letters to Joseph Stalin.

[32] After his release, Landau discovered how to explain Kapitsa's superfluidity using sound waves, or phonons, and a new excitation called a roton.

Landau received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below 2.17 K (−270.98 °C).

"[38] In 1957, a lengthy report to the CPSU Central Committee by the KGB recorded Landau's views on the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, Vladimir Lenin and what he termed "red fascism".

In 1935 he published a piece titled “Bourgeoisie and Contemporary Physics” in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia in which he criticized religious superstition and the dominance of capital, which he saw as bourgeois tendencies, citing “unprecedented opportunities for the development of physics in our country, provided by the Party and the government.” [3] On 7 January 1962, Landau's car collided with an oncoming truck.

[43] Landau died on 1 April 1968, aged 60, from complications of the injuries sustained in the car accident six years earlier.

[47] Landau kept a list of names of physicists which he ranked on a logarithmic scale of productivity and genius, such as creativity and innate talent, ranging from 0 to 5.

[55] Landau and Lifshitz suggested in the third volume of the Course of Theoretical Physics that the then-standard periodic table had a mistake in it, and that lutetium should be regarded as a d-block rather than an f-block element.

Their suggestion was fully vindicated by later findings,[59][60][61][62] and in 1988 was endorsed by a report of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).