Discussion journal of the Mössbauer Community

[Serge Stepanov <stepanov AT itep.ru>]

On November 16, 2023, Andrei Vladimirovich Davydov, a scientist and a teacher, a man who devoted all his life to science, passed away. A.V. Davydov was born on August 14, 1926 in Moscow. His father was a biology teacher and mother taught chemistry. Andrei and his two sisters lost their parents early. Their father passed away in 1929 and mother died in 1944 during evacuation from Moscow.

After returning to Moscow in 1944, Andrei got accepted to the Moscow Electromechanical Institute, where he studied for three years. In 1947 he moved to the Moscow Mechanical Institute (now Moscow Engineering and Physical Institute, MEPhI), from which he graduated with honors in 1949. Then he worked at MEPhI as an engineer and teaching assistant at the Department of General Physics. There in 1955 he defended his Ph.D. thesis.

In 1956 A.V. Davydov started working at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP). He was actively involved in the nuclear physics research related to the nature of beta- and gamma-radiation. He studied the Mössbauer spectra of the long-lived states of isomers (first of all, 109m-Ag). He was strongly involved into development of the gravitational Mössbauer spectrometer. The above studied are now fundamental in this area of physics. In 1982 he defended his Doctoral dissertation (habilitated). His research is summarized in the monographs “Research on the physics of gamma rays” (Moscow, Fizmatlit, 2013) and “Advances in Gamma Ray Resonant Scattering and Absorption Long-Lived Isomeric Nuclear States” (Springer, 2015).

A.V. Davydov was actively involved in social life. He had a very positive influence on the pupils studied at School №1000. They found his lectures to be of a great interest. For a number of years he was involved in the construction of the ITEP slalom ski-base. Elder ITEP employees recalled performances at the Days of ITEP, where Andrei Vladimirovich accompanied other singers on the piano. Memory of A.V. Davydov will remain in the hearts of our colleagues for a long time.