Lev Vasilyevich Shubnikov (29.09.1901 —1945) — a Soviet experimental physicist, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1926) and was sent on a scientific mission to Holland, where he worked at the University of Leiden under W. de Haas. In 1931—37 he was head of the cryogenic laboratory of the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, and in 1934—37 also professor at Kharkov University.
His work concerned solid-state physics and low-temperature physics. Developed a method of growing single crystals from the melt (the Obreimov — Shubnikov method). Together with de Haas he discovered (1930) the oscillations of the electrical resistance of bismuth in a magnetic field at the temperature of liquid helium (the Shubnikov — de Haas effect).
He was a pioneer of Soviet low-temperature physics. In Kharkov, Shubnikov successfully mastered cryogenic technology, helium and hydrogen liquefiers were installed, and the foundations were laid for wide research in superconductivity, low-temperature magnetism and the physics of cryogenic liquids. In 1931 he obtained liquid hydrogen, and in 1932 liquid helium; the first work in the USSR on the physical properties of liquefied gases was carried out, in particular the viscosity of liquid nitrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide, argon, methane and ethylene was measured (1934). In 1934, together with Yu. N. Ryabinin (practically simultaneously with W. Meissner and R. Ochsenfeld), he showed directly that in the superconducting state the magnetic induction of a metal is zero. He established (1934 — 37) the main features of the behaviour of homogeneous superconducting alloys in a magnetic field, and discovered that they have two critical magnetic fields and the so-called Shubnikov phase (in essence, type II superconductors were thereby discovered experimentally). In 1936 he obtained the first proof of Silsbee's hypothesis on the nature of the destruction of superconductivity by a current. He was the first to observe (1935) antiferromagnetism. In 1936, together with B. G. Lazarev, he measured the nuclear magnetic moment of solid hydrogen.
He founded a school of physicists (L. F. Vereshchagin, N. E. Alekseevsky, B. G. Lazarev, V. I. Khotkevich, N. S. Rudenko, Yu. N. Ryabinin, O. N. Trapeznikova, S. S. Shalyt and others).