Anatol M. Zhabotinsky

Anatol M. Zhabotinsky (b. 1938) is best known as the Zhabotinsky. of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky, or BZ, oscillating reactions. The BZ reactions involve the oxidation of various organic acids and ketones by bromate in the presence of cerium or ferroin ions. Waves of oxidation are easily observed as a color change from red (ferroin) to blue (ferriin). Originally from Moscow, Dr. Zhabotinsky currently does research at the Department of Chemistry of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and that is where we recorded our conversation on July 24, 

Please tell us about your background and what led you to the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reactions. 

Although I ve done my best work in chemical oscillations. I m not a chemist by education. I graduated in 1961 from the Department of Biophysics at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. My interest in oscillations came from my father, who was a physicist and started his work with the famous theoretical physicist Leontovich and then worked with Prokhorov, a Nobel Prize winner. My father is now 78 and lives in the suburbs of Moscow but still goes regularly to his Institute. I am 57. 

When I was a boy, I liked biology. However, when it was time to enter university, I had no incentives to study biology. It was the Lysenko period. I wanted to choose a field where I could do some decent work, and the closer it was to mathematics, the cleaner it was. Chemistry was also in a rather poor shape at that time. All fields that were not connected with the military were badly damaged and many were completely destroyed. So, when I entered Moscow State University in 1955, I chose physics. 

But in 1958, when I had to choose my field of concentration, the situation had changed dramatically. At that time, there was a thaw, and all the facets of normal life started to revive step by step, including science. For me, personally, a decisive event was the creation of the Department of Biophysics in the Faculty of Physics. 

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A. M. Zhabotinsky, Periodic Kinetics of Oxidation of Malonic Acid in Solution (Study of the Belousov Reaction Kinetics). Biofizika 1964, 9, 306-311 A. N. Zaikin, A. M. Zhabotinsky, Concentration Wave Propagation in Two-dimensional Liquid-phase Self-oscillating System. Nature 1970, 225, 535-537. See, also, a conversation with Anatol M. Zhabotinsky, I. Hargittai, Candid Science III More Conversions with Famous Chemists. (ed. M. Hargittai.) Imperial College Press, London, 2003, pp. 432-447. 

Zahradnik Rudolf 760 van der Zande Wim J. 251 Zare Richard N. 246, 766 Zavoiski Evgenii 617, 744 Zeegers-Huyskens Therese 559 Zeeman Pieter 655, 656, 676 Zeilinger Anton 3,14, 43, 47, 52, 53 Zewail Ahmed 765, 768 Zhabotinsky Anatol M. 850 Zhao Xun 269 Zierkiewicz Wiktor 559 Ziesche Paul 611 Zimmerman Neil M. 220, 827 van der Zouw Gerbrand 43 Zuber Jean-Bernard 134... 

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