Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Viktor Adamsky

PhysicistRussia

ScientistSoviet Atomic Bomb Program

Viktor Adamsky was a Soviet physicist.

After graduating from Moscow University in 1950, Adamsky was assigned to Sarov (also known as Arzamus – 16), a secret closed city, where he worked in the theoretical department.  Adamsky lived alongside other scientists such as Igor Tamm, Yuri Romanov, and Andrei Sakharov. As Adamsky described it, “There was enthusiasm. We worked well. We felt we were doing our duty. It was very interesting physics.”

Adamsky worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb project. He helped design and was present for the Tsar Bomba test, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. His detailed account of the Tsar Bomba test can be read here.

Related Profiles

Earl Thomas

Los Alamos, NM

Earl Thomas was an American physicist. After receiving his Ph.D. from CalTech in 1943, he moved to New Mexico to work with the Navy on rocket design and production for the Manhattan Project.

John C. Warner

Chicago, IL

John “Jake” Warner was an American chemist and the President of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, today known as Carnegie Mellon University.

Paul Francis Kerr

Manhattan, NY

Paul Francis Kerr was an American mineralogist. A professor at Columbia University, he was recruited to locate supplies of uranium for the Manhattan Project.

Hans Halban

France

Hans von Halban (1908-1964) was an Austrian physicist. Being of Jewish descent, Halban left Austria in 1935 to avoid persecution by the Nazi regime.