Yuri Babayev

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Yuri Nikolayevich Babayev (May 21, 1928 – October 6, 1986) was a Soviet physicist who helped design the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever built. He was born in Moscow and his family was evacuated during World War II to Chelyabinsk and then Leninabad. He graduated with honors from Moscow State University in 1950 with a physics degree. He joined the Soviet weapons program as a young scientist, working in Andrei Sakharov’s group at Arzamas-16 (KB-11). In 1953 he received the Stalin Prize for work on the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb (RDS-6). In 1955, with Yuri Trutnev, he proposed a new two-stage thermonuclear design that was completed in 1958. He earned a PhD in nuclear engineering in 1960 and became head of his department and deputy head of VNIIEF in 1964. His work included developing low-radiation-yield nuclear charges for civilian uses and studying nuclear-pumped lasers, as well as radiation effects on people and the environment. He trained many scientists as chair of the Academic Council at KB-11 and was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1968. He died in Moscow and was buried at Kuntsevo Cemetery. Among his awards were the Stalin Prize (1953), Lenin Prize (1959), Hero of Socialist Labour (1962), and posthumous State Prize of Russia (2000).