Igor Tamm was born in Vladivostok on July 8, 1895. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1918, specializing in physics, and immediately commenced an academic career in institutes of higher learning. A decisive influence on his scientific activity was exercised by Prof. L. Mandelstam. Tamm is an outstanding theoretical physicist, and his early researches were devoted to crystal-optics and the quantum theory of diffused light in solid bodies. He turned his attention to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and he evolved a method for interpreting the interaction of nuclear particles. Together with I.M. Frank, he developed the theoretical interpretation of the radiation of electrons moving through matter faster than the speed of light (the Cerenkov effect), and the theory of showers in cosmic rays. He has also contributed towards methods for the control of thermonuclear reactions. Resulting from his original researches, Tamm has written two important books, Relativistic Interaction of Elementary Particles  (1935) and On the Magnetic Moment of the Neutron  (1938).

Richard P. Feynman was born in New York City on the 11th May 1918. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was Research Assistant at Princeton (1940-1941), Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cornell University (1945-1950), Visiting Professor and thereafter appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (1950-1959). At present he is Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Feynman is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the National Academy of Science; in 1965 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society, London (Great Britain). He holds the following awards: Albert Einstein Award (1954, Princeton); Einstein Award (Albert Einstein Award College of Medicine); Lawrence Award (1962).