George Gamow

George Gamow (March 4 [O.S. February 20] 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov (Russian: Гео́ргий Анто́нович Га́мов Russian pronunciation: [ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡaməf]), was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist – notably an early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory. He discovered a theoretical explanation of alpha decay via quantum tunneling, and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis and Big Bang nucleosynthesis (which he collectively called nucleocosmogenesis), and molecular genetics.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George Gamow