Yuli Borisovich Khariton (born 27.02.1904) is a Soviet physicist and physical chemist, an academician (1953; corresponding member 1946). He was born in St Petersburg. He graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1925). In 1921 he began work at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute. In 1926—28 he did postgraduate work at the Cavendish Laboratory under E. Rutherford. From 1931 he was at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at other research institutions.
His work was in the field of nuclear physics, chemical kinetics, and the physics of combustion and explosion. Together with Ya. B. Zeldovich he gave in 1939 one of the first calculations of the nuclear fission chain reaction of uranium. He carried out research on the theory of the spontaneous ignition of gas mixtures and the theory of the detonation of explosives.
He formulated the principle for determining the critical diameter of a charge by comparing the times taken by the reaction and by the expansion of the material, analysed the mechanism of explosion processes and constructed a theory of the detonability of explosives. He proved the existence of critical conditions for the oxidation of phosphorus, which played an important part in the development of the theory of branching chain reactions.
He created a scientific school. Three times Hero of Socialist Labour (1949, 1951, 1954), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1956) and of three USSR State Prizes (1949, 1951, 1954). M. V. Lomonosov Gold Medal (1982).