The public should not demand that scientists be like everyone else։ Yuri Oganesyan

Yuri Oganesyan, a world-renowned scientist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, honorary member of the RA Academy of Sciences, after whom the 118th element of Mendeleev's periodic table is named, became a physicist "accidentally".

In an interview with NEWS.am Tech, he said that having finished tha school in Yerevan, he intended to become an architect and went to Moscow to continue his education. But in order to try his hand, he simultaneously passed exams both at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and at the Moscow Institute of Architecture. And he succeeded in both, but his documents were not returned from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology: they were presented to the relevant authorities, because this university was "semi-secret".

It is pointless to regret it, says Yuri Oganesyan, who is celebrating his 90th birthday this year, because "life is only one,” and questions like “what would happen if...” are of no use. Moreover, he was more than successful in physics.

Yuri Oganesyan is quite calm about the fact that he never won the Nobel Prize, even though he was nominated many times.

"The fact that I do not receive the Nobel Prize means that it is not given to nuclear physics," he thinks.

The academician believes that the terms "scientist" is not correct, it should be said " scientific worker". And this is just a profession, albeit a specific one, and "the public should not demand that scientists be like everyone else."

You can watch the interview with Yuri Oganesyan in Russian․