Vladimir Fock
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock (or
Fok, ) (
December 22 1898–
December 27 1974) was a
Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on
quantum mechanics.
He was born in
St. Petersburg,
Russia. In
1922 he graduated from
Petrograd University, then continued postgraduate studies there. He became a professor there in
1932. In 1919–1923 and 1928–1941 he collaborated with the
State Institute of Optics, in 1924–1936 with the
Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, in 1934–1941 and 1944–1953 with the
Lebedev Physical Institute.
His primary scientific contribution lies in the development of quantum physics, although he also contributed significantly to the fields of mechanics, theoretical optics, theory of gravitation, physics of continuous medium. In 1926 he generalized the
Klein-Gordon equation. He gave his name to
Fock space, the
Fock representation and
Fock state, and developed the
Hartree-Fock method in
1930. He made many subsequent scientific contributions, during the rest of his life.
He was a member of the
International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.
*
Fock matrix
