These Conference are devoted to the 115th anniversary of George (Georgij ) Gamow, one of the greatest physicists and cosmologists of the 20th century. Gamow made an important and decisive contribution to modern physics, cosmology and biology. His three most significant contributions to these fields are:
discovery of the quantum nature of alpha-decay in nuclear physics (1928);
theory of the Hot Universe (1946-1953);
clue to the genetic code in biology (1954).
George Gamow was born in Odessa. Here, after the completion of a secondary school, he was, for two years, a student at Novorossiisk University of Odessa. Wherever Gamow lived later, he retained his character and his sharp Odessian humor.