Kapitza was born in England, where his father, Peter L. Kapitza, was working on low-temperature physics and magnetism at Cam bridge. After graduating from the Moscow Aeronautical Institute in 1949, Sergei Kapitza worked at the Central Aerohydro dynamic Institute and later at the Institute for Geophysics while pursuing his Ph.D. in physics, which he received in 1953. Since then he has worked at the Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow. His research interests include aerodynamics, magnetism, particle accelerators and electrodynamics.
A professor of physics at Moscow's Physicotechnical Institute since 1965, Kapitza also is editor of the Russian edition of Scientific American (V Mire Nauki) and serves on the editorial board of the popular science magazine Priroda (Nature). He has been vice president of the European Physical Society and vice chairman of the committees on particle accelerators and on synchrotron radiation and the Committee of Soviet Scientists Against Nuclear War.
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