Lev Okun is a Russian theoretical physicist.

He was born in 1929 in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, and graduated from Moscow Mechanical Institute in 1953 where he was a student of Arcady Migdal and later a graduate student of Isaak Pomeranchuk

Isaak Pomeranchuk

Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk was a Soviet physicist, who was the founder and first head of the theory division at ITEP. The particle pomeron is named in his honour. For his work, Pomeranchuk was twice awarded Stalin Prize .-External links:**...

.

He has worked since 1954 at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow and has published some 300 papers, and several books, on the theory of elementary
particles.

He has served as a member of the Scientific Policy Committees of CERN

CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

, SSC and DESY

DESY

The DESY is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen....

. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

 and the Academia Europea,and an honorary member of the New York Academy of Sciences

New York Academy of Sciences

The New York Academy of Sciences is the third oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, non-profit organization with more than members in 140 countries, the Academy’s mission is to advance understanding of science and technology...

 and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics

Institute of Physics

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of around 40,000....

.

He is held in high regard by colleagues such as Murray Gell-Mann

Murray Gell-Mann

Murray Gell-Mann is an American physicist and linguist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles...