Victor Ninov (; born 27 June 1959) is a Bulgarian physicist and former researcher who worked primarily in creating superheavy elements. He is known for the co-discoveries of elements 110, 111, and 112 (darmstadtium, roentgenium, and copernicium, respectively). He grew up in the capital city of Sofia. In the 1970s, when Ninov was a teenager, he and his family left for West Germany, Shortly after the move, Victor's father went missing; he was found dead six months later in the Bulgarian foothills due to causes unknown. He distinguished himself as a very capable physicist: he was particularly good at building scientific instruments and coding analysis programs for them.
He was hired by the nearby German research center GSI (Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung), where he completed his doctorate and pursued postdoctoral work creating new elements.
For his expertise, he was given sole control of the computer analysis program. These discoveries were facilitated by Ninov's addition of a gas separator to the particle accelerator to help filter out everything but the heavy elements they were looking for.
After working at Stanford University, Ninov
Eager to prove their discovery, the team double-checked their instruments, and tried again. In 2010, some of the nuclides that were originally claimed as decay products of element 118 were truly synthesized at LBNL; the 2010 observations did not match the claimed 1999 data. Ninov has continued to maintain that he was innocent. The affair resulted in stricter guidelines for coauthors, clarifying their roles and duties and requiring them to vouch for their contributions to published work.
The American Physical Society called for increased ethical training and oversight at research institutions and sponsored educational efforts to make the scientific community more resilient to scientific fraud.