Veniamin Levich

{{Short description|Ukrainian physicist (1917–1988)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Veniamin Grigorievich (Benjamin) Levich

|native_name = Вениамин Григорьевич Левич

|image = Veniamin Grigorievich Levich.jpg

|image_size =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1917|03|30|df=y}}

|birth_place = Kharkiv, Ukraine

|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1987|01|19|1917|03|30}}

|death_place = Englewood, New Jersey, United States

|fields = physical chemistry

|education = Sc.D., Physics and Mathematics

|workplaces =

|alma_mater = University of Kharkiv

|doctoral_advisor =

|doctoral_students =

|known_for = Landau–Levich problem
Levich equation

|influences =

|awards =

|site =

}}

Veniamin Grigorievich (Benjamin) Levich ({{langx|ru|Вениами́н Григо́рьевич Ле́вич}}; 30 March 1917 – 19 January 1987{{cite news|author=Ennis, Thomas W.|title=Dr. Benjamin G. Levich dies; scientist and Soviet emigre|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/21/obituaries/dr-benjamin-g-levich-dies-scientist-and-soviet-emigre.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 January 1987}}) was a Soviet dissident{{cite book|author1=De Boer, S. P. |author2=Driessen, Evert |author3=Verhaar, Hendrik |chapter=Levič, Veniamin G.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IQzecjGQX0C&pg=PA319|title=Biographical dictionary of dissidents in the Soviet Union: 1956–1975|date=1982|pages=319|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|location=The Hague|isbn=9024725380}} who was an internationally prominent physical chemist, electrochemist, and founder of the discipline of physico-chemical hydrodynamics. He was a student of the theoretical physicist, Lev Landau. His landmark textbook Physicochemical Hydrodynamics is widely considered his most important contribution to science.{{cite book|author=Levich, Veniamin G.|title=Physicochemical Hydrodynamics|year=1962|publisher=Prentice-Hall (english translation by Scripta Tchnica)|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ|isbn=9780136744405 |oclc=567847240|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtoIAQAAIAAJ}} The Levich equation describing a current at a rotating disk electrode is named after him. His research activities also included gas-phase collision reactions, electrochemistry, and the quantum mechanics of electron transfer.

Levich received many honors during his life, including the Olin Palladium Award of The Electrochemical Society in 1973. He was elected a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in 1977 and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1982.{{cite book|author=Acrivos, Andreas|title="Benjamin Levich", Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 5|year=1992|publisher=National Academies Press|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-0-309-04689-3|pages=164–169|url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1966&page=164}}{{Cite web |title=Professor Benjamin G. Levich |url=https://www.nae.edu/28133/Professor-Benjamin-G-Levich |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=NAE Website |language=en}} He was also a member of numerous scientific organizations, although on leaving the USSR in 1978 he had to relinquish his Soviet citizenship and, therefore, was expelled from the USSR Academy of Sciences. An interdisciplinary institute at the City College of New York is named in his honor.{{cite web|title=Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics|url=http://lisgi1.engr.ccny.cuny.edu/|publisher=City College of New York (CCNY)|access-date=20 April 2012}}

His son Eugene V. (Yevgeny) Levich also became a physicist, leaving the Soviet Union in 1975 and raising support for other family members.{{Cite news |title= Soviet Jews in Israel voice 'Concern over Kin Left Behind' |author= Christopher S. Wren |work= New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/18/archives/soviet-jews-in-israel-voice-concern-over-kin-left-behind-slepak.html |date= 18 July 1978 |access-date= 14 October 2021 }}