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18 September marks the 110th birth anniversary of famous Soviet Armenian astronomer and astrophysicist Viktor Ambartsumian (Hambardzumyan).

His birthday has been celebrated as Day of Astronomy in Armenia since 2009, reports Panorama.am.

Ambartsumian is best known for his theories concerning the origin and evolution of stars and stellar systems. He was also the founder of the school of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union.

He was born in 1908 in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia to Armenian parents. His father was the philologist and writer Hamazasp Asaturovich Hambardzumyan, the translator of Homer’s Iliad into Armenian. In 1924 Victor entered the physico-mathematical department of Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute and then of Leningrad State University. As a student, in 1926, he published his first scientific article devoted to sun jets. Ambartsumian continued his postgraduate studies at Pulkovo Observatory, under the guidance of professor Aristarkh Belopolsky in 1928–1931.

His work first came to prominence in physics when in 1929 with Dmitry Ivanenko he published a paper demonstrating that atomic nuclei could not be made from protons and electrons. Three years later this was confirmed when Sir James Chadwick discovered neutrons, which with protons make up atomic nuclei.

In 1930 he married Vera Feodorovna Klochihina (born at Lisva, Solikamsk uyezd, Perm). After three years of affiliation at Leningrad University in 1934 Ambartsumian founded and headed the first astrophysics chair. In 1939–1941 Ambartsumian was the director of the Leningrad University Observatory. In 1940 he joined the Communist Party.

The war found him holding the position of the pro-rector of Leningrad State University. The scientific laboratories of the University were evacuated in 1941 to remote Elabuga (Tatarstan) where Ambartsumian spent four years directing the work of the refugee laboratories. In 1939 Ambartsumian was elected a correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1953 he became a full academician of the Academy. In 1943, the heaviest period of the war, the Armenian Academy of Sciences was founded. Iosif Orbeli was appointed as the president and Ambartsumian as the vice president of Armenian SSR Academy.

In 1947 Ambartsumian was elected as the president of the Armenian SSR Academy of Scientists and since then he was invariably re-elected to the position till 1993. In 1993 he became the Honorary President of the Armenian National Academy.

In 1946 the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory was founded. Ambartsumian became its first Director and headed the observatory til 1988. Ambartsumian served as the President of the International Astronomical Union from 1961 till 1964. He was twice elected the President of the International Council of Scientific Unions (1966–1972).

He was a foreign member of numerous academies, including the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. Among his numerous awards are Stalin Prize (1946, 1950), Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978), State Prize of the Russian Federation, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Bruce Gold Medal, and National Hero of Armenia.

Ambartsumian died in August 1996 in Byurakan and is buried next to the Grand Telescope Tower.